Archive for March, 2010

March 29th, 2010

Disappointment & Pride

Today has been a bummer day – I didn’t get either of the funding sources I applied to, so it looks like I’ll be paying for my trip myself. I talked to the career advisor & she said that funding is very tight & extremely competitive this year & that she’ll let me know if she hears of anything, but it’s highly unlikely. I’m pretty disappointed. Oh well – I have my ticket, I’m going & it will be an amazing experience.

Last year sometime, Joel came back from walking Wes & said that someone had taken his picture. I didn’t think much of it until today when reading Mark Maynard’s update of The Ypsi Project. The project sounded interesting & I was intrigued if this had anything to do with Joel being photographed. After going through about 13 pages of really wonderful photographs of Ypsilanti and its citizens – there he [& Dan & Wes] was!

Erica [the lovely photographer behind the project], wants to have a gallery showing of about 100 of the portraits. I’m really excited about this opportunity [even though I’ll probably be out of the country for the show itself] & donated a little bit of money to help back the project. You can do the same [& even get some lovely gifts] on their Kickstarter page.

I really love this town & felt inspired to wear my Michigan necklace today. My grandmother got it for me as a Christmas gift this year from City Bird – a Detroit store that features Detroit-themed goods, as well as items from over 50 local designers and artists.

You may remember my 50 Books in 2010 project – one that I’ve fallen ridiculously behind in [the goal is pretty ambitious for a grad student], but I haven’t given up on it completely. Last week I finished reading The Little Book – an interesting time-traveling tale about family, love & Vienna. This weekend I picked up A Canticle for Leibowtiz & I’m over half finished. I also checked out some audiobooks to listen to while riding the bus & working. I’m starting with Gilead by Marilynn Robinson. My cousin-in-law Angie didn’t give it a great review, but I absolutely loved her first book Housekeeping, so I’m willing to give it a shot.

Here’s hoping the rest of the week is up hill from today. If the weather forecast is any indication, I think it will be!

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March 27th, 2010

Russian plays, Bulgarian bracelets & a lack of motivation

I started writing this post on Thursday & it’s already Saturday! This has been a long & busy week!

The best day of this week was Wednesday, minus the part where I took our cat back to the vet & she’s still not better. We have another check up in three weeks. It’s a little frightening how expensive the vet can be…. But after that! Joel & I went out for dinner at Beezy’s Cafe – an amazing cafe right downtown Ypsilanti that has some of the simplest & best food I’ve ever had. After that we headed into Ann Arbor, picked up some espresso at Comet Coffee & went to the Power Center on campus. We watched an absolutely amazing performance of Checkov’s Uncle Vanya, performed by the Malay Drama Theater of St. Petersburg. It’s playing all weekend & I recommend going if you can.

Earlier this week we got a package from a good friend in Bulgaria. He sent us a bunch of martenitsi (мартеници) to celebrate & encourage the coming of spring. Traditionally, these red & white bracelets are exchanged on March 1st, the holiday of Baba Marta (баба марта). The bracelets are worn until a blooming tree or stork is seen & then usually tied to the branch of a fruit tree to bring good luck and health.

Photo used under a Creative Commons license from Klearchos Kapoutsis.

Right now I’m at the main branch of the Ypsilanti District Library – I needed to get out of the house, concentrate & do some work. A library & some Debussy always seem to get me motivated. Additionally, the second floor is open, full of natural light & has a beautiful view of the woods:

I’d love to be exploring those woods right now instead of doing homework!

Here’s a gratuitous photo of myself hugging my dog this morning. [He's the best!]

My passport came today!!! Only 33 days!

Sorry for the infrequent & substance-less posts  lately. In about 4 weeks time, the semester will the over & I’ll be in Egypt where I’ll have lots of interesting things to say & pictures to show. Until then, I apologize for the decrease in quality posts. [I still love you all].

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March 22nd, 2010

Healthcare & happiness

Although it’s Monday & we were out of coffee this morning & I had a computer programming exam first thing, waking up to the news that the health care reform had passed was a lovely way to start my day. I’m not interested in debating the pros & cons of the bills [which there are many] but, as someone who had nearly $4,000 in medical bills as a result of a hospitalization that left me with a “preexisting condition” which lead to a denial of coverage from a private provider, I think it’s a step in the right direction.

This MPLP lolcat is great:

I’ve been nominated to run for the board of the School of Information student chapter of the Society of American Archivists. I’m really excited about the opportunity! Although I need to write up a short bio, which is proving to be a bit of a challenge. I’m not exactly sure what to say & saying it in the third person feels awkward. I’m also not sure if I have to run against other people & if anyone would vote for me, however, I’d be really honored to get a position.

TIME has a list of the 25 best blogs [& top 5 overrated] & 50 best websites – lots of interesting things worth browsing.

This Intellectual Girl’s Survival Kit is wonderful!

Lastly, I absolutely love this quote:

To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all. [Oscar Wilde]

Enjoy the rest of your Monday!

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March 21st, 2010

The sharing of links & happiness

Hello!

I submitted my application to attend TEDxUofM on Friday. They only have 300 seats, which means they’ll probably read twice as many applications, so I included a short haiku at the end to help show how fun I am & to hopefully make my application stick out. The conference is April 10th, so they should be releasing the attendance list fairly soon.

I heard a really interesting piece on the radio the other day about how the internet is being used to undermine extremist groups – mostly by helping reservse the isolation that many of their recruits feel. I couldn’t find a link to the piece I heard by The World, but the BBC had a very similar article. Very interesting.

This is an interesting article – U.S. Will Undergo Human Rights Scrutiny. Here’s the opening paragraph:

Rolling out the State Department’s latest human rights report, Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton announced that, for the first time, the United States will submit itself to a process in which its record might be judged by some of the world’s worst human rights abusers.

Lastly, another very interesting article – Germany fights to keep Holocaust organiser’s files sealed.

The secrecy order is being challenged in a benchmark court case against the BND, Germany’s domestic intelligence service, which wants the 4,500 pages of documents on Adolf Eichmann to remain out of the public domain. The service claims that intelligence agencies in other countries will be “frightened off” in future data-sharing if they are disclosed, Der Spiegel reported.

Yesterday we spent the afternoon & evening in Jackson. Joel’s band [Fields of Industry] & two friend’s bands [Long Whisker & God & the Architects] played a showed at the Michigan Theater.It was a really wonderful night full of friends from Jackson, Chicago & Ypsilanti, full of love & full of joy.
Fields of Industry

Today in Jackson, a local group is organizing a “white pride march” to “fight for the rights of whites.” The idea of needing to march to defend the whites’ rights is pretty ridiculous in itself, but it seems the march is being organized by Battalion 14 Michigan, a group whose recruitment videos uses neo-Nazi imagery. More about that here. Yikes.

Our friend did some henna this weekend – I thought it’d help lessen the itch for a new tattoo, but no luck.

I suppose I should stop procrastinating & do my homework & study for my exam & work hard because there are only 5 weeks left in the semester & I leave for Egypt in 39 days & life is too amazing & great to let go.

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March 18th, 2010

Sunny thoughts on a sunny day

I’m writing this while sitting outside of the undergrad library, soaking up the sun. True, it’s a little more difficult to see the screen, but it’s warm & I’m wearing short sleeves & I don’t care. Apparently it’s ‘Greek Week’ & today is ‘diag day’, so the diag is filled with sorority & fraternity types. It appeared they were holding a spelling bee when I walked by earlier?

I sent off my passport application today! It feels very good to have that done. My new one should arrive in about two weeks, which is plenty of time before my departure in 42 days.

Yesterday turned out really wonderful. Here is a short list of the greatness:
- I swept our front proch & wiped down the table & chairs, so it is ready for hang outs
- For the first time this year I got out the hammock & spent some time reading in it
- I took a bunch of plants outside, repotted them & let them enjoy the sunshine
- Some friends came by & we took the dogs to the park, where we ran into other friends with dogs
- I wore a skirt for the first time this year!!
- I rode my bike for the first time this year!!
- There were lots & lots & lots of festive EMU students walking by our house all day
- Hanging out with friends was wonderful as always.

Our friends live close to Sidetrack, which had some bagpipers playing all day [even though thats probably more Scottish...]. Anyway, I made Joel take a picture of me while they were playing [even though everyone said you wouldn't be able to hear it in the photo, just know] – Sidetrack is in the background & I’m holding some Irish beer & a bowl of delicious green frosting.

Enough rambling about my life, here are some interesting things:

A prominent urban planner has been hired in Detroit to help reshape the city through its consolidation & downsizing plan. More good news is that his salary will be subsidized by the Kregse Foundation – a huge relief, I’m sure, to those in charge of Detroit’s struggling budget. I think this is a strong step forward & I’m optimistic about the future of Detroit.

This article about a Kenyan-based human rights reporting system is incredibly inspiring. Free, open source & using simple technology [in this case, cellphones], this system, Ushahidi [Swahili for 'testimony'] was built in a weekend in 2007 after violence erupted in Kenya over the disputed election. It’s since been used in Haiti, India, the Middle East and even Washington D.C. to track information after the blizzard. These few sentences can’t give justice to how powerful this technology could be & I highly suggest reading the article.

Now to go accomplish more things & cross them off my to-do list!

I took a deep breath and listened to the old bray of my heart: I am, I am, I am. [Sylvia Plath]

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