Friday night, before the start of a quick and fleeting (aren’t they all?) football weekend, I went to a GSLIS social event. This is significant … I’m basically doing grad school by myself. I don’t have any associations with people in the field or school, and introducing myself carte blanche to stangers isn’t one of my strong points. But, I went to a bar outside of my social circles, and met a bunch of other people there for happy hour.

Turned out to be a really great experience. I had a long discussion with one of the IS/interfaces professors, whom I know I’ll enteract with later academically, and probably professionally. I was impressed by him; out at a happy hour with students, and interested in listening to my ideas about technology and my impressions of LIS so far, and things us as CS/LIS people are doing right and wrong. I learned a few things, and hope I left a good impression on him. Part of it might have been drunken rambling (on my part most likely, maybe on his part — I don’t know him well enough to say.)

It’s tough completely reacclimating to student life, because IS is something I work in and study/experience every day. Yes, these are my professors and upper-classmen, but they’re also my colleagues. They have knowledge I don’t have, at least with terminology and history of the LIS field, but I have practical hands on experience with technology and the application of some of these pieces. I think that puts me in a unique, or at least rarer position than some of my other classmates. I worry that sometimes I presume too much of myself, and should take a humbler student approach.

And then Jeffe posts about inflated self-assessments and that’s been a strike to my self confidence. The post is funny to me because I took his class (for non UIUC-CS majors, that’s the CS theory class that is both the scariest and coolest thing you’ve ever seen. It is the class that fries your brain. It is the class whose topics or textbook you tout to non-CS people to revel in their horrified stares. It is the class that forces you to think outside normal considerations, and somehow logically argue how you got there and why it’s valid. It is the class that showed me if I can solve minesweeper (the demo game that comes with Windows,) in a logical way, I will have solved all of the impossible problems of the universe. They will all fold into one, and be answered, and the universe will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. Again. (With apologies to Douglas Adams.) Anyhow, “I don’t know.” I used that in his class.

The paper/pancakes blog post was a good, timely reminder that while I need to be critical and analytical and bring my wits to class with me, I need to be very open and understanding, and not overstep myself. If I err that way, it’s not because I’m arrogant or trying to show off, it’s that learning changes you. I feel my opinions on the readings and topics as they’re introduced to me bring a fresh perspective that maybe the teachers have long forgotten, and that I someday will forget, unless I get it out and talk about it now. I say stupid things because I want to be argued against. I think I know something about the topics, because in some ways I do, even if what I don’t realize yet is that bit of knowledge barely fills a thimble floating in the ocean.

I just hope I can do all that without making an ass of myself, both in class and socially.

You know we live in sad times when the governor starts taunting the president all Daily Show-like.

I think gas prices are terrible, and they’re only going to get worse, and I don’t think our government cares — although it is nice to see all the initiatives Rod came up with. Can he follow through, and will it help, in time?

And, while I’m complaining, why is my talk always almost empty when gas prices lurch? Gas at 2.59… na, I won’t fill up, I’ve still got an eighth of a tank. And then, whammo, it’s 30 cents more that afternoon. Lame.

I’ve been catching up on The Daily Show, and they’ve really been going at Pat Robertson for his comments and prayers that the American government should assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. I understand Robertson’s arguments, and I think I understand killing in the name of religion or sacrificing one to save many.

What I don’t understand is how a religious man turns to organized, premeditated murder instead of praying for reform, or enlightenment, or some other resolution short of breaking, oh, say, one of the ten commandments? What’s next, coveting his late wife’s ass?

Or, maybe it’s just a side, sneer comment made by a stupid man and blown way out of proportion by the liberal media and the media that likes making fun of the liberal media? I know I’ve made comments about killing people, and didn’t really mean them. Of course, I don’t own a cable network and have a show where I preach and instruct to the world.

Also, today, I learned from Animal Planet that wolverines are cute like sea otters. Thank you TV.

I drove home from work one evening this week and saw a truck on my street that made me do a double-take. I actually drove around the block again so I read it to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating.

A magnetic sign on the side of the pickup with the trailer full of yard gear was “Merrill Lawn and Computer Services” I could only imagine what that sales conversation/cold-call sounded like:

Hi, would you be interested in our rake and RAM special? We’ll airate and overclock. We degrub and defrag. We’ll mow, trim, edge and antivirus. Get rid of crabgrass and spam! Trim your hedges and secure your wireless!

See, it’s funny, because my family used to run a lawn service. I really didn’t like mowing other people’s lawns (or even my own back then.) Mom always joked I did the computer side of the business because when they went to mow, I went to the PC.

I chuckled. Maybe we’re not the only family like that.

Oh man, is it football weather outside! 57 at 8:30, getting up into the seventies today. There’s a welcome fall chill on the air, yet the sun is bright and warm on your face. If I wasn’t pumped about tailgating/football before today, I am now.

I guess I’m not the only one. Last week, we got a MASSMAIL that, once again, to thank the university community for its dedicated service in this dismal financial period when real compensation is “hard,” the university admins are giving staff two tickets to the football home opener. A game over Labor Day weekend that no one is going to go to anyway. With a brand new coach after a pitiful season last year. Gee, thanks guys. I’d rather have had Friday afternoon off. But Cantor never did such things for us, so I still think Dick Her Man is a-okay.

Sometimes he makes me laugh, especially with today’sm ASSMAIL about the chief, included below for those who can’t look them up. Ah, politics… the art of saying something without saying anything at all…

Dear Members of the University Community,

The Presidents and Chancellors on the Executive Committee of the National Collegiate Athletic Association recently adopted a new policy to “prohibit NCAA colleges and universities from displaying hostile and abusive racial/ethnic/national origin mascots, nicknames or imagery at any of the 88 NCAA championships.” As those of you in the University of Illinois community know, we have been debating and discussing the Chief Illiniwek issue for many years now. The Board of Trustees has been actively engaged in addressing the matter and 18 months go set about an effort to reach a consensus solution to the issue. The Board is now considering what response it will take to the University being included on the NCAA list of schools with imagery deemed “hostile and abusive.”

To those who honor and revere the Chief, these harsh words will seem a terrible distortion. To some of those who oppose the Chief, these harsh words will ring true. The NCAA recommendations also seem to argue that the very names “Illini” and “Fighting Illini” are themselves hostile and abusive references. I believe that this is an unwarranted extension of the debate. We are evaluating the NCAA recommendations now and will seek all necessary clarification in what appear to be ambiguities in the decision. In the meantime, no change is being made in the use of the terms “Illini” or “Fighting Illini” or in the Chief Illiniwek tradition.

The University of Illinois is dedicated to an environment of respect and dignity for all individuals. Exactly what that means, of course, is the nub of our long debate. As a great university, we cannot shrink from freewheeling debate. That commitment is at the core of our mission, the core of our nation’s value of free speech, and the core of our national character. Yet let us acknowledge that our varying beliefs about the Chief are sincere matters of the heart and the head, and let us resolve to continue to work respectfully across our differences to find common ground.

Very truly yours,

Richard Herman
Chancellor

This mailing approved by:
The Office of the Chancellor

Hello subscribers! I’m sorry I haven’t been around, but I had a cold last week, making me feel like not doing anything, and that was sandwiched by two busy weekends. I’ll give you the quick recap, and then fill you on all the little quirky things I really want to blog about.

Last Thursday, the 21st there was an evening storm. That storm took the power out about 1030pm, and it didn’t come right back on. I wandered around the neighborhood, since it was cooler outside than indoors with no A/C or fans, and then made a paper copy of my cell phone phone book by candlelight. When I went to bed, there was a black and white police car outside the house but I didn’t figure out why. I slept with the windows open, and it was quiet, hot, and uncomfortable. Every storm that came through the night woke me, and that reminded me how nasty it was, and then I couldn’t fall back asleep. About 7am Monday morning (power still out) I was awoken by trees being cut down, and found out a power line was downed last night two houses down. (The cop was making sure people didn’t drive over the downed line, which crossed Clover lane.) When I left for work, they were still working on it. The power was off about 12 hours altogether. Marc complained about losing his work Internet/WAN link, but losing power is a much bigger deal.

Last Friday I took off for Chicagoland with Eric and AJ. We met up with Rich and Marc and Tony at Dave and Buster’s – a mix of sports bar, bar, and video arcade with classic games (Skeeball!) and some neato technology ones (virtual boxing/bowling, neat shoot’em-up games.) It was a good time, but the only games I really won was the Bartender game, the Cards/Cubs game (suicide squeeze,) and I lost the remembering-to-pack-underwear-game. I didn’t do well enough at Skeeball or Popaball to win the D&B boxers. This trip to the arcade was to make up for not going out with Rich on Saturday for his bachelor’s party because this was a Dave Matthews Band concert weekend in Wisconsin.

Saturday, we met up with Josh and Andrea and started the trek north. Chicagoland/94 traffic sucks, but we eventually got into the hotel, and into the Alpine Valley parking lot. No sooner had we pulled in and cracked some beers, when a huge storm blew in. This was one freaky, omnious, end-of-days, sky-dark, wind blowing so much it’s hard to close the car door type of storm. In no time, the car was getting pelted with blinding rain. We just sat in the car and had lunch. Later, the storm cleared and we tailgated outside and then went into the show. Andrew, Eric and I had lawn seats, and slide around on the hill during the concert.

Sunday we were back for day two, but the rain stayed away. It was perfect Alpine weather – sun, beers, cribbage (15 two, four, six, pairs makes twelve,) tossing the softball. Stuck and I had pavillion seats on Sunday, and it was an excellent show. A neat mix of old and new; the new songs with good jams, and some really old classics (#34, #40, two step by request…) On Wednesday, I was able to bittorrent both shows and have been listening to them. Monday was the drive home – which took most of the day, and more cursing at lane-shifty Chicago drivers and bad I-94 traffic.

I started feeling sick on the way home, and the rest of the week was in a cold and cold medicine induced haze. Wednesday was a hard day at work, and I took Thursday off and pretty much slept all day. By Friday I was feeling a bit better, and was back up to Chicagoland for Rich and Cindy’s wedding. I hadn’t sat in a long catholic mass in a long time. The reception and dancing was fun, and of course we had 1-800-TEQ-UILA and Beam Black. But even better was the White Castle adjacent to the hotel. MMmmmmmm… I finally got my White Castle fix, which was great, even though I had to tackle a hedge to get the steamed-cooked-on-a-bed-of-onions-goodness. Between the drinking, Nyquil, and cheeseburgers, I woke up around 0430 on Sunday morning with one of the worst cases of dry mouth in recent memory.

Some other points to ponder, so this isn’t a total week-in-review posting:

I can’t believe August is here already, and I filed June away in the Daily Planner binder. Summer is FLYING by.

I rented the first disc of the first season of Roswell from Netflix, and after watching two episodes, I think the rest of the disc is going back unseen and the other discs nuked from the queue. This is a cheesy-WB teeny-bop program, and not something Dead Like Me meets X-Files freaky/eerie like I was hoping for.

Speaking of Dead Like Me, season two is here and I should be watching that instead.

I finally checked my IPASS account online, and found out I have a $14 remaining balance, minus the $0.80 it took out for today’s tolls. I think that means it will recharge another $40 in my next trip to Chicagoland or two. Isn’t technology nifty? Also, after being satisfied with them and documenting them well enough, I committed the new routes I have through Kankakee and Wilmington to my car’s directions book.

I still need to clean the inside of my car, from over a month ago, and scrape the melted-bun-bag off the inside back window from Alpine.

My Champaign library card expired, and no one told me. All I know is I went to add a book to my wishlist and my PIN didn’t work anymore. An email or something would have been nice. Anyone else been hearing a lot about David Allen’s Getting Things Done recently?

I’m working on a computer program that will help us select where we want to go to lunch. I started working on this in PHP, then decided I wanted to use an object model instead of linear programming. Then I decided I wanted to use XML instead of a database. Now I’m leaning towards Java because of better object handling and I want to present this via a website. Any opinions on XML and Java, or applets versus Java WebStart, and AWT or Swing?

I got the framed certificates for completed my Human Resource Development/Training for Business Professionals Professional Supervisors Program and FastTrack Manager Program. They have the Chancellor’s signature on them, and are very official. One of them is made out to “David E. Musselman” The reasons I’m annoyed with this is three-fold. One, I’ve never submitted anything with my name misspelled — people should be more attentive. Two, there were two certificates/plaques… Someone should have noticed they were different and investigated which was wrong. And three, it hurts. Actually, this has happened quite a few times in my life when getting trophies or plaques or awards. At this point, I don’t care anymore, and I find that a little frustrating.

Polling point: Do you prefer these multi-idea posts as a single long post, or would you prefer multiple shorter distinct posts?

[ Ed Note, although this post is about J.K. Rowling's latest book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, it does not contain spoilers. Except the post title, which has nothing to do with the plot of the book. ]

Last week brought greatness into the world. On Wednesday, the space shuttle launched. On Friday, Starbucks opened at 5th and Green in Campustown, and at 12:01 on Saturday morning, the new Harry Potter book went on sale.

Well, two outta three ain’t bad. Maybe NASA should rename their website to be http://www.nasa.gov/stillwaitingtoreturntoflight/ I guess I’m just annoyed because I made a special effort to be in front of a TV for the launch that didn’t come. Instead, I got to watch Judge Judy and other terrible daytime TV. It sounds like they’re going to try for next Tuesday.

As previously blogged, I dressed up for Harry Potter Day, although I ditched the glasses before lunch because they were bothering me, and my scar sweated off before I left work. Afterwards, I met up with Mr. and Mrs. TL&EMK for mexican at “The Toro.” That meant grande margaritas and quesadillas.

Then we went home and drank out on the deck. Oh, yeah, Friday, July 15th, marked the one year anniversary of the house closing. So we toasted some brews outside on a nice summer evening. (”I HAVE A DECK” may not be as fun as it was a few years ago, but it’s still true. Maybe now it’s more like “I REALLY HAVE TO CLEAN AND SEAL MY DECK!”)

Then, it got late, so we picked up AJ and went to BW3s to hang with the Olsons and Steph in post-rehearsal-dinner-drinking, [ Ed Note: wearing Harry costume to the bar got me carded buying the drinks, and giggled at by at least two waitstaff and a table of girls that looked about Hermione's age. ] but only had time for a car bomb before heading down to a local bookstore around 11. (We didn’t even have time to watch Pujol’s 13th inning HR to win against the Astros.) After a not so good glass of butterbeer, and a very large mocha, and a meandering line through the bookstore – chatting with a GSLIS grad behind me, BTW…neat people you can run into at bookstores – I left with the four copies preordered (the Kresls got two, because, hey, who can share?)

When we got home, Tony started devouring the book like it was covered with melted real cheese and ranch dressing. I, on the other hand, was still a bit drunk and a bit wired from the coffee. Now, I’ve been drunk before, and I’ve been wired before – but I don’t think ever at the same time. I take that back; too many Baileys and coffee does that too me too, and although I love the potent potable, I don’t enjoy the upper/downer battle going on in my head. It makes me edgy, and possibly because of the Christmas Eve connection, makes me want to play board games.

I tried, very hard, to read the first page, several times, and just wasn’t ‘getting it.’ AJ pointed out the irony that the very first sentence of the book talks about reading something and not remembering it. I read that sentence at least four times and didn’t understand/catch it. I decided I could wait until the next day to start the book.

[ Ed Note: Okay, I said I wasn't going to spoil the book, but that's not a spoiler. It's not like I quoted the words from the book. And the first sentence isn't critical to the plot either. A spoiler is something that gives away something you care about, like Harry got caught with his [ THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION CENSORED BY THE MINISTRY OF MUGGLE UNDERSTANDING OF WIZARDRY AFFAIRS AND OTHER LONG BRITISH GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENT TITLES. ]]

But I was too wired to sleep. Too wired to put in a movie. (This would have been one of those times Mom or Aaron would have told me to run around the house four times. And I would have done it.) So, while we goaded Tony and forced him to sit downstairs in the papasan (which is Ikea for “uncomfortable,”) AJ and I played backgammon. We played a few rounds until he got the hang of it, and then the cribbage board came out. I think I played 20 or so games with AJ, Marc and Tony through the weekend, and it was great. I hadn’t played in a long time, and it felt good. Junior, we gotta dig out that old Cribbage program, and sound clips, and play again.

At some point in the night, I opened the book to a random page and yelled down to Tony the title of this post. A while later, after he Apparated several times to different areas of the house to read, he chuckled and told me he’d ran across that page. Sunday, when I read it, I laughed – and today, at about 12:30pm, Andrew sends me an IM with that message. He was reading it over his lunch break. [ Ed Note: That's not the only time that quote is said in the book. ]

More about the rest of the weekend, and what I think’s magical about Harry Potter in another installment. If I make this any longer, your RSS Owl will fall down.

Word of the Day for Saturday July 16, 2005

apparition \ap-uh-RISH-uhn\, noun:
1. A ghost; a specter; a phantom.
2. The thing appearing; the sudden or unexpected appearance of something or somebody.
3. The act of becoming visible; appearance.
4. (Astronomy) The first appearance of a star or other luminary after having been invisible or obscured; — opposed to [1]occultation.

Dictionary.com can be such a Zeitgeist sometimes. Tony has finished HP6, while I was too drunk/wired to focus on it last night, so I’ll start it sometime today and probably finish it during the week. I’m always amazed how quickly he can read and still absorb/enjoy things.

Congratulations to Steph and Steve, who are getting married this afternoon. This one’s going to be fun.

From the last episode:

Babysitter: Stewey, this is Jeremy.

Jeremy: Hey, little man, so you’re the guy who’s been tring to steal my girlfriend.

Stewey: What, you? Girlfriend? What kind of sick twisted game are you playing at?

Babysitter: Stewey sounds a liiiittle cranky. I’ll put him to bed.

Stewey: Ha, I got your hat. Take that, hatless. Now go back to the Quad and resume your hackey sack tourney. I’m not going to lie down for some fratboy bastard with his damn Teva sandals and his Skol Bandits and Abercrombie and Fitch long sleeve open stiched crew neck henley smoking a sticky butt out of a soda can while watching his favorite downloaded Simpsons episodes every night.

Yes, we all love Mr. Plow. Oh, you’ve got the song memorized, do you? So does everyone else! That is exactly the kind of idiot you see at Taco Bell at one in the morning. The guy who just wiffed his way down the bar skank ladder.

Babysitter: Good night, Stewey.

Stewey: If he wants to throw hands, I’ll throw hands. *Has pacifier stuck in mouth, and quickly falls asleep* I tell you… I… Uh… *silence*

Even though I believe a rich life involves a little bit of doing things and a little bit of reflecting on them (blogging about them,) I’ve been more of a do-er than a report-er. There are many things I want to share with you, so buckle up – this might be a long one.

At work, we have a rediculously expensive clock system that uses GPS and FM signals to automatically set and synchronize the analog wall clocks in the conference, class, and lab rooms in the building. The carpenters installed most of the clocks last week, and, you guessed it, they aren’t working right. Some of them think we’re on mountain time, others are happy in central. I think I figured out why (with the help of the company’s 800# free tech support,) but it could take a while for the changes to make their way out to the clocks. If they aren’t all right tomorrow, I’ll walk around and reset them manually…. Exactly the thing we spent a crazy amount of money to avoid doing.

The rest of work is going well. I’m still making progress on my network transition plans for the summer. We’re rapidly approaching the diving board – enough talk, enough planning, enough trying to envision every side-effect. Just make the big changes and deal with the splash when you hit the water. I’m contemplating setting up a work blog (instead of categories in this blog,) but I wonder if that’s worth it. Certainly there’s a benefit to journaling my work experiences and learning, but to what degree? I might have to find that out. I could blog about my troubles with perl and my home directory, or the clocks, or the problems you encounter when Windows SFU can put files in place that traditional Windows file APIs cannot touch.

I’ve been trying to read more blogs, and I’ve thrown a few podcasts on the iPod. I still think a good 70% of things on blogs isn’t original – just someone linking to something else with their own little notes. That’s all well and good, but I want things that are interesting and new to me. (What did Tony’s kids learn this week?) The same old rehash, even worse when it’s audibly narrated to me, is annoying. Other than streaming new, unheard of music, or talk shows I’m actually interested in, I don’t see podcasting as being a big thing for me.

My LIS accounts are getting activated, and I’m able to browse their online webboard and resources. I’ve gotten 2-3 IT announcements from them in the week or so. I wonder if the LIS community has a different appreciation for IT than the CS community? I guess we’ll find out.

I was at home this weekend for the fourth, and we kept busy. Aaron and I went to Fair St. Louis on Saturday morning for the parade, food/beer, and airshow. Unfortunately, this airshow was all aerobatics and no military, so I didn’t get to see the big aircraft, or the perennial favorite Harrier. I also didn’t get a gyro or allegator, but I did enjoy corndogs with painted on mustard, ice cold Budweiser, fresh fried potato chips, a steak sandwich and a deep fried Oreo, which I guess is close enough.

On Sunday, Mom, bro and I drove down to the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri. Mom had found an australian shepherd rescue on petfinder.com that she wanted to see, so we loaded into the Maxima (now with iTrip!) and met Lori, who became the next member of our family. She’s seven years old, and is as sharp as a tack and sweet as sugar cane. She’s a little flighty, as I would expect any transplanted dog in a new home to be, but she handled the car ride and rest of the weekend just fine, even with thunderstorms and fireworks! She has some new rules to learn, and we have some old habits of hers to break, but I think it’ll work out.

I don’t regret Lori, but adding a new pet 7 weeks after Winston left us sure pokes at a still sore wound. I think Aaron, Mom and I, each on our own terms, came to the realization this isn’t Winston – as much as we wanted her to be. None of us are fond of the Lori name, and it was all too easy (and bittersweet) to slip in a Winston…and then catch yourself, and maybe cry a little. Winston’s things came back down from the attic, unwrapped with the intention of being for Lori … and after being hugged, smelled, caressed and tear-stained, were quickly put back in their storage and will be put away again.

It’s not Lori’s fault; it’s cancer’s fault. If our Winney wasn’t taken by cancer, and Lori’s previous owner hadn’t been taken by cancer, our lives would be different. We’re all hurting, and we’ll all heal. Lori is fun and smart and beatiful. Once she lets us in, and we let her in, I’m sure we’ll find peace in the happiness we get from each other. Until then, it’s going to take some growth, and that’s not always easy, even when you want/need to do it. As I was packing up my car to leave, it was nice to glance back at the front door and see a dog staring at me through the storm window again. Sure, I’m a little sad it’s not Winston, but it’s hard not to smile at bright brown eyes and a wiggling dock, you know? Pictures will be on flickr later.

I left home at sundown on Monday, and drove by at least 7 firework shows by towns near I-70.