I have been thinking deep thoughts lately. Among them, why do we never see squirrel poop? You see bird poop all over the place, and dog poop is pretty obvious, but I've never walked down a sidewalk and noticed squirrel poop. Do squirrels hide their poop? Do they disguise it so that that what we think is bird poop isn't?

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RadioLab is basically the radio I've been looking for for a long while. I don't know how I feel about the direction where voices overlap in the narrative, but the content is just what I wanted. Now I might have to consider an MP3 player.

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Continuing my love affair with all things paper, this guy combines the art of paper cutting and folding into ridiculously complex pieces borne out of a single sheet.

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It appears that I didn't bring the proper USB connection with me for my camera, so photos will have to wait a bit until I can go out and get something. When I do get the right cord I'll post what I have so far, but it isn't much. My photography has slipped to nothing since I've returned from Japan.

MAN am I out of shape. Fidez' grandparents, being the amazingly generous people they are, 'lent' me a mountain bike so that that my commute would not be 30 minutes on foot anymore. After spending nearly as much on a lock and helmet as I would have spent on a night parking pass, I set out on this bike and was quickly reminded that I have not exerted myself physically in any form for a very long time. My legs were not happy with me, but I was happy with the bike so they can fall off and die. I also realized, as I was biking, that the handles were not in alignment with the wheel and the seat was not in alignment with anything. Those were both easy fixes, but they were also things it would have been nice to notice before I started peddling. At least I had the good sense to test my breaks -before- they were needed.

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Here's a project to watch: http://www.thismustbetheplace.tv/

The first film is great. I really hope they upload more.

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I don't know why but I find that it's much more satisfying to work behind the scenes at an event than it is to simply attend something. I always get bored just 'attending', but when I'm given a job to do, even if it inhibits my freedom to enjoy all that an event may provide, I'm always so much more satisfied when I'm done. Maybe I should go into event managing. Career change!

Nah, volunteering is one thing, running the show is another.

Anyway, I will be attending the Colorado Association of Libraries Conference as a volunteer. I'm not signing up to attend any of the big events, which I don't usually enjoy, and instead will be running errands for three days.

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I'm curious about how blogger decides what blogs to associate with mine. When I hit the next blog link, which I do often, I constantly end up on blogs about either alternate education or Christian homemakers. While I have nothing against elementary education or Christian homemakers, I can't say this blog is about either. Maybe I'll have to go through some of the nuts and bolts and figure out what's doing this.

On a similar note, I am heavily considering investing in a domain and some virtual server or something somewhere and rekindling a website. It might make sense professionally, and it never hurts to update old skills either. The question is when I will find the time.

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I continue to bleed money with association memberships and household necessities and a rather contorted job situation that's starting to annoy me, but my solution has been to start applying full tilt again. I have a minor advantage now too, because I have access to more trade information and have discovered a number of library based job leads.

I also think my right wrist is starting to develop carpal tunnel, so with a six page paper due Monday, and two other projects due Thurs, this week might be a bit of a challenge.

Awesome Archival!

From the Library of Congress, a reenactment of the beheading of Mary, Queen of Scots.

Very impressive axework!

BBC Headline of the day: Fire death baby accused in court.

I have discovered the most amazing shortcut for word processing. Alt+Ctr+Shift+V = formatless pasting. Having to reformat text every time I cut and paste from an outside document was driving me crazy, so I finally went looking for a solution, and sure enough, there it was.

I was flipping through the Chronicle of Higher Education while waiting for a meeting yesterday when I came across an ad that amused the hell out of me. Apparently Xerox is very upset with the fact that its brand has been appropriated to simply mean copy, and is actually spending money to advertise to whoever it is that reads the Chronicle of Higher Education that they'd really appreciate it if everyone only used the term Xerox when referring to the brand itself. There's something about how Zipper was once a brand, and now it stands in for, well, zippers. You would think a company would be happy that their brand was synonymous with whatever it was that brand did, but I guess not. Stuff like this is why I roll my eyes at business.

I have never lived with cats, but since coming to Denver I haven't spent a single day without one. My roommate's cat, Rufus, is a real character, and after a few jittery days where he did nothing but stare at me he's now decided my lap is the happening place to be. He also doesn't seem deterred by the fact that there is a computer on my lap and I am trying to do work. I thought if I stuck my elbows out and just kept typing he would get the hint, but he just straddled my left arm and lay down on top of it. I'm too much of a push over to shove him off, so one half of my lap is cat, and the other is computer, and I have yet to figure out a comfortable way to accommodate both.

Today was my first advising appointment of my masters career, and it was probably the best advising appointment I have ever been in in my entire life. My high school counselor was bad to the extent that she could not spell the subject that I wanted to pursue in college. My college counselor met with me something like twice in the four years that I was at school, and did little more than make sure I had the credits to graduate. When I tried to transfer my major to Japanese in my freshman year the Japanese advisor looked at me like I had grown a second head, asked me why I'd want to do that, and then told me to wait. I had my little battle with Japan after that and dropped the idea.

But today I went in, was asked about my intended focus, my intended career, was advised on classes I should be taking in and out of the program, e-mails were sent on my behalf as we discussed things, possible employment, internships, etc were brought up, and I left knowing what to expect for the next two semesters, and what would take priority in my work outside of class.

I don't know if the Grad/Undergrad divide has something to do with the massive difference in treatment, or if the hundred or so library students divided between 5 or so advisors makes the difference when the entire Asian Studies Undergrad department had a single advisor (I think) or if I have grown so much as a student that I'm better equipped to look for what I want and to go for it than I was back in Hawaii. All I know is that things are already feeling more productive than they did in Hawaii.

The only problem is that none of this is guaranteed to translate into employment. It is an employers market still, and people who are far more qualified than I am are coming up empty. At this point the only option is to move forward though. There's no point in wasting time, making little money, and hoping some day it gets better.

The best things about school are the things you discover when you're studying.

I'm doing research on Net Neutrality and am starting with a few historical and comparative communications policy stuff. Right next to the relevant books I found a telegram dictionary. Back when the telegram was the primary method of quick, long distance information, word space was a message writer's biggest concern, so a huge lexicon was created to replace standard phrases with a single word each. For example, "Emprestado to lendel close scanbiare" means, "Is it imperative to be prepared to close as soon as transfer books are closed." At least, I think so. My handwriting is terrible and there may be grammar rules or something I'm unfamiliar with, but that's the gist.

I would really like to learn Morse, but there's Gregg Shorthand to master first.

The other interesting tidbit I came across as I was studying was a reference to the work conditions of a federal office during the great depression. In the process of creating the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 cots were set up to help people work around the clock and 72,000 hours of unpaid overtime was performed in the first year. I wonder if we could get any good legislation going if Washington put itself to work like that again.

And, it turns out there's a large Russian population in Denver. I have to do a little bit of research on that for a project where I invent an imaginary patron, so maybe some interesting facts will rise to the surface there too.

==

Refs(mainly for my benefit) :
Lindblom & Cohen, Useful Knowledge and Useful Problemsolving

Compared to the chaos of the last few days today has been pretty excellent. One interview, where the only real hitch was that I found out I had left my belt up in Dacono and had to rush out and buy one before driving out. I guess I'm set up with a temp agency now, though I'm not expecting too much out of it. Work for job number 2 doesn't start until next week, I'm munching on what's left of my spring rolls, and my to do list is actually starting to shrink!

I've had three hours of unmitigated sitting, which I have enjoyed thoroughly, and now I'm off to make yet another feeble attempt and shopping for work quality clothes. I hate shopping with such a burning, angry passion, but t-shirts and pants with holes in the behind are not cutting it anymore. Speaking of which... I need to see about some patches...

... but I hate clothes. Blegh.

Oh man. I don't think I can recall any other week in my life where I have been this busy. On top of preparing for and attending my first classes, trying reel in all the lines I put out for work, familiarizing myself with the area and its grocery stores, trying to cook and failing, and otherwise putting all the disparate pieces involved with moving to a new city and starting a new life into place, I have had maybe one hour total with which to rest or fool around on the computer. My mind is so revved up that it's taking me three or more hours to fall asleep after I lay my head on the pillow, which is something I -really- hope changes once things get more settled.

I've had a two day grocery ordeal involving a Japanese food store near downtown and two meals that I managed to only buy half the ingredients for each. Today I resolved to pick up the missing stuff from a local store, and set about making spring rolls. I've had a real hankering for spring rolls since I mentioned them before, something like a week ago, and have not managed to scratch that particular itch since I was denied them. When I was in Japan I had made them with my host mother, so I though, hey, how hard could they be? You don't even have to cook anything but the shrimp.

Well... It turns out I didn't quite remember what went into them, so I forgot some of the flavoring, bought cabbage instead of lettuce (I guess I'm making a cabbage dish soon) had absolutely no idea how to prepare avocados and didn't know I didn't know until I had mangled one, and ended up buying shrimp that was too curled and too small to be laid out the traditional way. Youtube gave me a crash course on avocado slicing, and after some experimenting the shrimp worked anyway. What was irredeemable was the sauce. It was terrible and I ended up just throwing it out. Without the sauce spring rolls are really bland, and without the greens they're even blander. Good thing I don't mind tasteless food. Plus, by the time I was done making a dozen of them I was too hungry to care.

I've taken a picture of the results of my exploits, along with a few shots of the interior of the apartment, but my usb cord is (hopefully) still sitting in my trunk along with a few other excess effects that I have not bothered to move in yet, so all that will have to wait. I also noticed that the lens of my camera has managed to pick up even more black spots, even in the protection of its case. Somewhat annoying, that.

I've now taken two of the three classes, and predict a heavier workload than I expected initially. Since the school runs on quarters, each class is only 10 sessions long, which sounds a little crazy, and probably is. Within those 10 sessions we're expected to do a large paper, a group project, and a few other assignments. I'm thinking I will not be able to pull of the procrastination game this time around.

There's probably a lot more that I'm missing, but that will have to wait for another day, as I'm tired, and want to spend at least a minute of this day doing nothing (probably will work on my budget spreadsheet instead). So here's a quick list.

Stuff I like about Denver so far:

• The road I take to school has a bike path, so when I get a bike the commute will be perfect.


• Driving back from part time job 1 I saw an entire family of prairie dogs chilling by the road. I think that's the first time I've ever seen a live prairie dog, and there were more than a dozen. Unfortunately one was flat on the shoulder. =s


• The people in general are all pretty cool, and the drivers are pretty sane, even considerate sometimes.


• All the curbs are slanted, so that I can relearn my parallel parking and it's cool if I go a little too far.


• There's a Japanese food store in the city. It's not really that close, but it's there, and it has a lot of good stuff.

Stuff I don't like about Denver so far:

• It's almost all road related. For one, I can't seem to get onto I25 south without spending 10 minutes criscrossing the damn thing. Ironically, the one time I did get onto I25 S without a hitch I really wanted to go North.


• There is no parking anywhere at all. I hate city parking.


• The building where I have my classes is as far from my apartment as it can be without being off campus. Ok, that's not completely true, but it is on the wrong side.


• I still don't have a room of my own. I'm managing fine, but I am really looking forward to being able to have a real space, and be completely moved in.

Phew, 11PM already. I've got an interview and a class tomorrow, and then I think I will set off on another culinary adventure.

Nothing says "it's official" like a 6 hour orientation. My behind is sore but after weeks of preparation, being at the school and hearing my professors talk about the coming semester woke me up and gave me a nice shot of energy. The bumper to bumper traffic back to Dacono sucked most of it back out of me.

In less than a week I'll be attending classes, and then I can judge if this little gambit really was a smart move.

Saturday was break day. Instead of sending in a ton of resumes I went out with Fides, his mom and her boyfriend to check out the King Tut Exhibit. While the exhibit was certainly interesting, I suppose I've been spoiled by the Louvre and did not think that the additional admission fee was quite worth it. My childhood fascination with the Egyptians was rekindled to some degree, and I can't say I've ever seen anything that belonged to King Tut's grave before, so that was a treat. And Fides shared with me the fact that this would be his first museum visit ever. The very idea stunned me, and it stunned Aram when he found out too. Twenty three years and not a single museum! I'll be dragging Fides around to more of them in the future, for sure.

Once we had gotten a museum education in Egyptology and boggled at the $46k coffee table book on sale at the gift shop (I don't care if Zahi Hawass -had- signed it) Fides and I checked out the Taste of Colorado festival going on right across the street. The food there is beyond expensive at two times a reasonable price at least, but I decided to splurge and try a Buffalo Steak Slider. It didn't taste much different from beef. Oh well.

I would have liked to check out the vendors a bit more, but the sun was on a mission to set us on fire and poor Fides was drooping fast, so we got in the car, got lost, and made it back home in time to play some Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines for a few hours. It's been a while since I've enjoyed myself with a single player game so much, and the great part is that when I finish with my Nosferatu I'm replaying as a different clan for a very different play experience. I'm thinking Toreador. Can't get much opposite than that.

Labor Day weekend for me has meant job applications. Bro called during the Feast and let me in on the festivities via staticy cell reception. I had forgotten it was feast day. Felt a bit bad about that, but the gesture was appreciated.

Now I'm worried about whether or not it will be feasible to go home for the Christmas holiday. It will depend on the job I get. I'd be willing to fly out for just a few days if that's what it took, but there's no use speculating.

Applying to an average of 10 jobs a day maaay be paying off. I finally have a reply. There is no guarantee that a callback means a job, but the position looks like a great one, and just the prospect of having work is catapulting my spirits. Here's hoping.

When you hand your whims the reigns and let your curiosity lead you unfettered sometimes you end up in strange places. If you told me I would be spending any amount of time in a small town in the middle of the American West I would have rolled my eyes and said, "yeah right," but here I am, chilling in a barn-cum-guest house while I prepare to move down into metro Denver in a week. I've been here almost two weeks now which means it's about time for my bullish insistence that it will all turn out alright is now locked in mortal combat with the bear of 'WTF was I thinking?'

I only have two major concerns, but they are major. The first is about the job search. I've never had such trouble landing a job. Sometimes I would drag my feet about getting one, but since high school I have been able to find work when I needed to find work. Two weeks may not seem like a long time to the objective observer, but for someone who is going to have tuition and rent to pay soon I am seriously starting to wonder if there is something in my resume or approach that is sabotaging my efforts towards gainful employment. Considering I am using the same resume build that I did when I almost got that job back home, I don't -think- there's anything in there screaming "Stay Away" to prospective employers, but who knows. Maybe the job market is just that terrible. The only thing that can be done is to drive ahead and keep my eyes open for my chance. I did find a hidden pocket of library assistant jobs for some law firms, so maybe something will come of that.

My second concern has to do with the location. I like Denver, a lot. It's a beautiful city with a beautiful backdrop of mountains and plains and a strong public transportation system, which I still consider essential even with a car. The problem is that I love New York City, Seattle, and New England too, and am wondering to myself if I should have gone somewhere that had what I was more specifically interested in rather than somewhere that was just new and challenging. For example, if landing a position at the library of congress was my dream job, would it not have made sense to try getting into a program closer to the library of congress? Or if furthering my education in East Asian studies and Asian languages was something I really wanted to keep up with should I not have held out for Seattle? My decision was ultimately influenced by the fact that Denver accepted rolling admissions while every other school I was considering did not, and I was on the verge of going nuts if I was going to spend one more month languishing at home but in hindsight I wonder if I couldn't have exhibited just a little more patience.

That's not to say that I think my choice was a bad one. Every road to something leads you away from something else, and I simply have the time now to look around and wonder about what I am passing by in choosing this particular path. I expect that once I moved down into Denver proper and start meeting the other people in my program I will know more firmly whether or not the leap of faith I have made here was an intelligent one.

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I've also learned a lot of things from my life as an undergrad in Hawaii. I know what works and what doesn't. I'm looking forward to my time as a graduate being, on the whole, much more satisfying than my time as an undergraduate, but for that to happen I will have to work at it and resist the temptation to fall into a routine and drive through the next two years with blinders on.

So I'm keeping my eyes open for stuff to do and people to meet. There was an advertisement up for a language event involving food and free 30 minute classes, so I thought, what the hey, I'll go down, check it out, and maybe meet someone interesting. Turned out that the event was tailored to an older crowd as an extension of the adult learning program and the classes they were selling only met once a week. You can't get much done language wise once a week, but I've had such an itch to study -some- sort of language I was still considering signing up. Lucky for me the choice was taking out of my hands when the classes I was interested in were scheduled at the same time as my grad courses.

I am still heavily considering finding some way to start learning Chinese, but am trying to focus on the job front first, and -then- I will find new and exciting ways to spend my money.