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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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]
I’m thankful for our fireplace – today is one of those cloudy, damp days where the chills seeps in. There’s nothing like a fire to warm me up [& to get rid of that pile of junk mail & cardboard!]
Joel shared this quote with me the other day & I really like it:
“These are not books, lumps of lifeless paper, but minds alive on the shelves.” -Gilbert Highet
I’ve posted before about the Let’s Save Michigan campaign, a fantastic local organizations. Together with the DIA, they are hosting a poster contest and finalists were announced today. There are 60 posters & you can vote for multiple posters, but only once a day for each poster. All of the entries are inspiring & wonderful, but these are my favorites:
Today and Sunday I spent some time at local thrift stores. As I get ready to head to DC next week to work at the National Library of Medicine, it’s become clear that the “business casual” part of my wardrobe is sorely lacking. Luckily, people in Ann Arbor give away really nice clothes and I was able to pick up some great pants & shirts. Also, I’ve been on the lookout for clothing that would be good to take with me to Egypt this summer. It’s a very conservative country, so I’ll be wearing a lot of long skirts, loose tops and keeping my shoulders to myself. [65 days!!!!]
I enjoyed this article from the Boston Globe titled, In the Digital Age, Librarians are Pioneers, a review of Marilyn Johnson’s book This Book Is Overdue. Not only does the book show librarians to be the daring & innovative crew that they are, but she calls archivists the “unsung heros of the library.” Additionally, we are “magicians that deftly distinguish between detritus and artifact, capturing history before it disappears because of a broken link or outdated software.” A wonderful statement [even if it might be up for debate in my appraisal of archives class]!!
Oh!! I just got an email that the University of Michigan is hosting their own TED conference next year. How exciting – I’ll definitely be there!! That is, if I’m selected – attendance is through application & invitation only.
This Flickr group, Looking Into the Past, is a creative way to use photos. By aligning an old photo within it’s modern day setting, the passage of time is clearly visible. I’d love to do this around Ypsilanti! Here are some of my favorites:
After 4 sunny days in a row, today we got a LOT of snow. It stopped a few hours ago, which is too bad since I may or may not of had my fingers crossed for getting my night class canceled…
Unfortunately I spent the weekend sick & feeling pretty terrible. [Although I'm doing a bit better today.]
Things I did this weekend:
- blow my nose [x 10000]
- whined about how sore my nose is
- stared at the computer screen
- drank tea [x 10000]
- did 1 word search & 2 sudoku puzzles
- thought about the homework I should be doing
- daydreamed about Egypt
- showered
- watched The Wire
I did do some knitting & finished another hat!
I also finally get us renter’s insurance – something we’d been talking about for awhile, but had never gotten around to doing. Friday night, our friend’s apartment was broken into & his laptop & tv were stolen. Break-ins are unfortunately all too common in Ypsi & I feel good knowing for $20 a month we have $15,000 in coverage.
This afternoon I turned in another funding application. I’ve now applied to do different places that each offer $5,000 & I only need $4,000. Hopefully one/both of them come through but, if not, I already bought the ticket & there’s no way I wouldn’t go now.
Forbes did an “America’s 20 Most Miserable Cities” list that Flint and Detroit are of course on. Less of a bummer is this list by CNN which names Detroit as the second most affordable city to buy a house in the United States! I’ve been thinking lately that if we stay in the US, I’d like to stay in Ypsilanti or Detroit. Strange as it may be, I feel most comfortable there or abroad.
Here’s a silly music video that gives quite a good description of what archivists do:
I’ve been enamored with the website Information is Beautiful lately. So many wonderful & informative visualizations and info graphics.
For example, here’s the most effective male photos at okcupid.com:
