Long weekend!

Three days a week, I work in shifts with my coworker (we can’t work at the same time because the only thing we can do is use a single program that can’t even process two things at once), I’ve decided to take tomorrow off. It’s just not worth it for me to drive to Hollywood just to work for four hours, and then brave home Friday afternoon traffic. Normal afternoon traffic is awful enough.

Luckily everyone in the office is environmentally conscious, and also laden with enough common sense to see that this works out better for everyone.

Woohoo!

Filed under: work

on the job

So yeah, my summer jonb is pretty relaxing (the most stressful part is the commute, which starts from the land of the Auto Square and runs into Darkest Hollywood). Specifically, my job is to do data-correction on the archive’s catalog card index of its newsreel collection.

Custom-made software scanned and OCR’d the cards, so some of the entries have been recognized by the computer. I’m supposed to fill in the gaps and correct the mistakes the computer might have made, like when it reads “Loans” as “Boats,” or “News of the Day” as “News of the Gay.” There are many usability problems with the software programs I use, the upshot being I usually can’t process more than two cards per minute, leaving me a lot of time to peruse the web and do other things while waiting for the software to run.

But I’m actually learning quite a bit, though how it all fits into my graduate studies remains to be seen. Still, it’s kinda interesting to see the great variety, depth and breadth of the topics covered by newsmen of yore. They went all over the world, and took part in all sorts of history, which they faithfully recorded on film (and then tried to encapsulate on tens of thousands of 3×5 index cards).

When I first started work, others had already processed cards up through “Guns.” As you might imagine, we spent quite a bit of time finishing going through all the cards about “Guns” – three wars’ worth! We then moved through Handicapped, Hospitals, Infirmities, Investigations (Congressional and otherwise), Jails, Juggling, Jungles, Junk, Labor, Libraries, Loading/Unloading and right now I’m going through Loans. I get a small sense of accomplishment when I move from one subject heading to the next, or from one letter of the alphabet to the next – that is, until I consult the full list and realize there are still like 30 drawers’ worth of cards to go through.

But I’ve learned about Middle-East political figures of the 1960s, as well as parents of kidnapped infants from the 1940s (Lindbergh was only the most famous). Whenever I come across a topic or name that keeps appearing on the cards, I check it in Google or Wikipedia. (This was also how I learned that there is an entire article on Wikipedia devoted to Fighting in Ice Hockey).

Also enjoyable is realizing that poor spelling and typographical errors are not at all a recent phenomenon. Like, one of the subject cards was supposed to be about suits, but the title read “White Shits.”

And the best typo was found by a colleague, not me – it was about royalty, and was supposed to be entitled “Countess.”

Whoever originally typed it up left out the “o.”

Filed under: work

rennervate!

I just finished reading the last Harry Potter book. I read straight through from the moment I opened the Amazon package.

Okay, so not nearly as impressive as, say, the moment JKR finished, like, *writing* the freaking book, but hey, I think I am just as traumatized.

Phew, now I can move on to other things!

After I find another loyal reader to overanalyze the series to death with, that is.

Filed under: Uncategorized

twitterdom

I’d definitely count myself among the Twitter-skeptics. I never could understand what the big deal was about an app whose only purpose was to broadcast what users (aka Twits) were doing from moment to moment. Twitter just seemed like the sad apex of the pyramid of shallow narcissism built atop the foundation made by blogging, Myspace, YouTube, and that “Time Magazine Person of the Year” business.

But Clive Thompson makes an interesting argument for how Twitter could be useful — it gives you a sense of social proprioception, he says, where all the little updates and mini-pings help you stay caught up with your friends even if you don’t actually hang out with them regularly.

I guess it means that even if you don’t IM or talk to someone or meet up with them for a long time, you can still keep in tune with the vicissitudes of their lives via their Twittercasts. And because it’s done on such a micro-scale (with continuous, fleeting RSS-style updates), you do it pretty much subconsciously, meaning it takes a lot less effort to keep in touch (sort of) with your friends.

So one problem with this pro argument is that it means you can get by on even less personal, one-on-one interaction with people (if you consider that a problem). On the other hand, it means that when you *do* actually hang out with someone, you don’t have to spend a lot of time getting “caught up” and repeating stories and things. It’s like, the new “I’ve been reading your blog”, but somehow more.

Also, somehow less. I mean, Twitter might be banal as hell (depending on who your friends are, I guess). But that almost makes it more intimate. I haven’t been using Twitter very much at all, but I can easily see Thompson’s point because I already get a similar sense of social proprioception with people from their Google Calendars, which show up with my own gCal. Sure, it’s mundane, but it’s still useful for knowing what people are up to. And I barely notice that I’m doing it, because I’m not reading their calendar entries on purpose, so much as I am absorbing the information they leave on their gCals as I check my own stuff to get through the day.

One way Twitter is different from other kinds of social networking is that the information you provide is not standardized. So you have more freedom, even if you are limited to 142 characters. As long as you’re succinct, you can broadcast whatever information you feel like broadcasting. So I don’t think I’m wrong about the narcissism, but in the end, Twitter might be end up being more useful than a MySpace page. (Of course, Facebook, with its status updates, has had a Twitter function built in for a long time now). Well, at least Twitter looks a lot better than MySpace.

Anyway, I like Thompson’s idea that this sort of thing could be really useful in the workplace, or rather, the virtual workplace. I’ll believe it when I see it. Until then, here is me, twittering like an idiot

Filed under: web2.0

see also: why i can’t move

Last year I gave money to some cancer foundation, and all of a sudden, almost every month they’ve been sending me a set of mailing labels along with their requests for more money.

I feel a little bad about not having given them more, since now I have these nice pre-printed, self-adhesive mailing labels! But I’m also annoyed, because the charity won’t stop sending me labels, long after I’ve stopped giving them money. I know it’s a ploy to guilt me into sending more, but frankly I don’t have all that much to give anyway, and the whole thing has gotten annoying enough to make me feel pretty uncharitable towards them.

I know the postage and printing of these isn’t free: someone, somewhere along the line, is paying for these. But that’s why I can’t help but feel that it isn’t the most efficient way for them to be using this money. Shouldn’t they be using it to, like, help people with cancer, instead of to kill trees?

And it’s been getting worse; I’m pretty sure they’ve given my address to other people. I’ve been getting solicitations (and more mailing labels) from other societies.

I’ve thought about mailing them a small check with a note to like, stop sending me these freaking labels, and to stop giving/selling my personal info away, but I don’t know if that would work.

On the plus side, I will never have to write out my return address on an envelope again, so that’s like, one less thing I’d have to do.

Filed under: Uncategorized

back to work

I went back to work today, not necessarily because all the programs were working, but I think because my boss felt bad I wasn’t earning money. So even though the software wasn’t 100% fixed, I got to do a little bit of data entry anyway.

Data entry is super relaxing, so I don’t mind working, and I certainly don’t mind making some cash. It is frustrating, though, to be using software that really doesn’t work all that well, especially since I can’t do anything about it. That’s what makes all the difference, really. The software is custom-made, proprietary, and I really have no idea what’s going on, how it works, or how it was made, so I can’t look for patches or other software or anything. So I’m forced to just muddle through, and it’s annoyingly slow going.

On the other hand, since only one program is working, I have to start taking shifts with my coworker. So tomorrow I get half a day! Woohoo!

In other news I’ve finally been opening up Adobe Illustrator, which has been sitting more or less idly on my hard drive for about a year now. Yesterday I learned how to use the pen and anchor-point tools. Today I accidentally discovered the mesh tool, and after taking a few tutorials, I have to say…….wow! That tool alone can make some things look amazingly awesome.

It’s about time I learned how to do these things. I’m going to learn how to draw. Hey, it’s easier than learning Flash!

Filed under: computer

this is the new library school

Near the end of last quarter I was sitting in the computer lab/library in the Info Studies building, printing out my final paper, when a girl ran in, looking pretty harried. She ran over to the person sitting next to me and asked her, ‘Do you know anything about the Dewey Decimal System?’

Well, since we were library students, sitting in the library of the library school building (where, by the way, we have to shelve our own books), one might’ve thought it a straightforward exercise to fill her in on everything she’d need to know about Dewey. Instead, we all sat there as we slowly realized that, um, we actually…didn’t know it all that well. Like, they’re numbers, okay, and we know the general classifications they stand for…

“But then what do the letters mean?”

“Letters?”

I wasn’t directly involved in the conversation, but this was when I decided to check Wikipedia. Dewey uses letters??

“There are these letters sometimes.”

“You should Google it.” [Wikipedia had nothing about letters.]

An old-school librarian might have fainted or shot herself at this point, but the girl just shook her head frantically.

“I don’t have time, I kinda need to know this now.”

It dawned on me that she must have been presenting her portfolio right then, or doing a final presentation for class. Imagine, somebody finishing library school and not really knowing the Dewey Decimal Classification all that well!

I kinda like it!

Filed under: school

Harry Potter and the Hugenormous Bank Account

All the talk about the fifth Harry Potter movie and the upcoming final book (9 days!!!!!) has made me waste a lot of my valuable, new-found free time (no word from work yet, makes me suspicious) – I’ve reread the fifth book and am in the middle of the sixth one, getting myself back into Harry Potter mode so that I’ll be ready for Number 7.

Re-reading the old ones would be kind of boring, if it weren’t for the fact that JK Rowling packs so many details in her books, things that practically spell out what’s going to happen next, but only clear up in retrospect, and only if you’ve been paying close attention. Right now I’m furiously trying to figure out what might be actual clues, hidden by the fact that they’re hidden in plain sight (usually casual, throwaway lines or ostensibly joke lines) and what might be red herrings.

But seriously, if she kills the twins I’m going to boycott the eighth book. You know, the one with the title given above

Filed under: book

miffed!

For the first time ever, I’m sort of sad that I’m not working right now. Of course, this is mainly due to the fact that I have car payments to make now.

But at my data-entry job at the archive, we use three programs written by a certain well-known computer company’s engineers. And all the programs stopped functioning (gradually, over the past few weeks). The most stalwart one finalyl gave out today, leaving me with nothing to do.

And since I’m not qualified to do anything else the department does, other than make coffee, I had no choice but to come back home. And now I have to wait until they call back saying the programs are up again. Which might be……never?! Non-profits sadly lack the ability to make things happen with scads of cash.

Oh well. And I was all set to write about funny things that happen at work. Which I might do…..but having come back home, I’m suddenly excited about the extra free time. So maybe I’ll write it up tomorrow, when I’m miffed about not making money again.

Filed under: Uncategorized

meerschweinchen!

I’ve been entertaining the idea of adopting a guinea pig (aka cavy) or two, once I find a new place to live (if I do end up finding my own place, and if that place allows small pets). I spent a few days browsing cavy sites and reading the Wikipedia article on cavies. Now I don’t think I can afford one, because apparently they need a lot of good, fresh produce, which I have trouble even getting for myself. Plus there’s the cage, the hay, the vet, and all that stuff.

Still, it’d be so nice to have a pet around to cuddle and play with. Cavies are especially cute because they’re so expressive. They whistle (or “wheek“), and purr, especially when they know food is coming, and even dance when they’re happy (it’s called “popcorning“). So cute!

I’ll have to keep thinking about it, but in the meantime, I’ve got plenty of adorable pics and videos to look at….like vicariously owning a pet (pro: not having to clean up cavy doodoo; con: no actual furry animal to hold).

Filed under: personal