9 October 05
Walk, and Baseball
We walked into campus today to get the paper. It’s not that far—2 miles—but Numenius made the mistake of saying the word “Wuffles” while we were in the middle of silently kicking an oak gall forward, which I mistook for “waffles,” and so we ended up walking all the way to Cafe Bernardo for brunch.
(“Wuffles,” to the uninitiated, is the name of Pratchett’s Lord Havelock Vetinari’s mangy terrier. Vetinari is the closest thing in contemporary fiction to Machiavelli. It’s said the dog is the only thing he really cares about. Why Numenius said this word at this time is still a matter of some conjecture.)
The Astros managed to eliminate the Braves over 18 innings, the longest game in post-season history. The Yanks squeaked through 3-2 and will now head to Anaheim for the deciding game.
It ends so quickly, the baseball season, forcing us to ponder how on earth we’re going to get through the winter…
9 October 05
Hug Your Local Archivist
This is California Archives Week, an occasion perhaps not on most people’s calendars, but in celebration the California State Archives had an open house today in Sacramento. We went to this event, which featured displays from several of the archives in the vicinity (such as Sacramento State University and UC Davis), and then a behind-the-scenes tour through the state archives. My inner librarian comes out at such moments. Archivists are a bit different than run-of-the-mill librarians. For one thing, they think in terms of cubic feet—as in they just acquired 3500 cubic feet of papers from former governor Pete Wilson, but they’re prohibited from looking at them for another 50 years.
For records concerning juveniles the time period is 75 years. The archivist who lead our tour had on display a volume open to documents concerning a lad who ran away from home in 1923. He fled San Francisco bound for Los Angeles, and before being picked up got as far as San Jose entirely on roller skates!
7 October 05
Enhorabuena
I don’t have children so I can barely imagine what it must feel like to give birth to a baby who within seconds has medical personnel screaming for oxygen, transfusions, needles, and who is then whisked off to intensive care.
This happened to some friends of my parents’ in Spain some 33 years ago. Aránzazu was born with a hole in the heart. By age 12 she’d had at least five open heart surgeries.
She got married last week in the village of Aránzazu in the Basque country, and she wore the biggest of her scars like a precious necklace, urging us all to embrace life, the life she’d had to fight so hard for.
Hermosa, te queremos mucho…
7 October 05
Daily Habit
The Daily Kitten is always good for a smile, even on a bleak day.
5 October 05
Adobe CS2
Mostly a new version of software is much like the old with a bit of razzmatazz thrown in so you’ll buy it.
There’s plenty of razzmatazz in CS2, most notably the incredible vanishing point in Photoshop, but how many buildings am I realistically going to change the siding on, unless I suddenly start DeChirichoising my newsletters?
Some of the new features, though, will save me a ton of work. The object style in InDesign, the live trace feature in Illustrator, and the new Bridge browser across the platforms. Installed today. I’m looking forward to having a bit of a design session indulgence over the weekend.
4 October 05
Viral Notes
It is Pandemic Flu Awareness Week, so now is a good time to look at the Flu Wiki.
Meanwhile, there has been a mysterious viral outbreak at a nursing home in Toronto that has killed 10 residents and hospitalized 40. The virus is not SARS, normal influenza, or avian flu.
2 October 05
Sweet Caroline
Our friend Nicole told Pica today about an NPR story on the mystery of why Red Sox fans sing the song “Sweet Caroline” at every home game. Plenty of Red Sox fans are singing the tune tonight. Having trounced the Yankees 10-1 in the final game of the season today, the Red Sox are going to the playoffs! The fun starts Tuesday—Red Sox versus the White Sox in Chicago.
1 October 05
A New Department for UC Davis?
We can always dream.
This is in fact an art project by a student here. The sign moves about campus in very anarchist fashion, being tracked currently on the Davis Wiki. It looks in every way like the signs you see ubiquitously on campus (UCD stands, of course, for Under Construction Daily).
Goldman Dance Studio? Sacco and Vanzetti Memorial Learning Center? Kropotkin Cafe? Count me in.
1 October 05
Final Weekend
There are two games left in the regular season, and the Red Sox, Yankees, and Indians are still in contention for two playoff spots. The Red Sox beat the Yankees this evening, the first game of the three-game series, and the two teams now have identical records. There are many possibilities for the American League playoffs depending on what happens the rest of the weekend. Thankfully somebody else has calculated all of them.
Down the road at the Oakland Museum, the exhibition Baseball As America has just opened up, and will be running through January 22, 2006. Organized by the National Baseball Hall of Fame, this is the first major exhibition to examine the relationship between baseball and American culture. Sounds like a trip to Oakland is in our future!
29 September 05
Bike City, USA
Davis has just been recognized as the most bicycle-friendly city in the United States by the League of American Bicyclists. This town of 65,000 has over 100 miles of bikeways, thousands of bike parking places, and most important, 25 grade-separated intersections keeping bicycle and motor vehicle traffice apart.
When I was in San Francisco on Tuesday I was fearful for the cyclists on Market Street. They have every right to be on the road but it’s tough sharing the street with crazed drivers and tramlines. Today, by contrast, I rode my bike from work into town: most of the two miles were on bike-only roads. This was the first day of classes and parking a car would have been a nightmare. Instead I parked my bike right outside Ali Baba and sat and had a very enjoyable time working on my Sudoku, which I just discovered last week. I’ve discovered an unwanted addiction…