Lamenting the Sick and other odds and ends

This may be the only post you guys get from me for awhile. Awhile being at least until i get my desktop hooked up to IU's network...stupid Get Connected CDs and RITS not being open over the weekend...I know I know, everybody needs weekends off. fair enough. I have just realized how dependant I am on the Internet for my news, reviews and updates from friends. How much I am dependant on email to communicate far and wide, and hello ---who needs access to ELLA to fix their earlier website constructions...I Do! I Do!
So, guess why i'm complaining. My Sony Viao laptop - my gorgeous little baby - being one of 2 children I have - the second being Bessie, my fantastic 2004 Civic - is in computer hospital. or rather, being shipped today to the Best Buy corporate service center. God Speed Viao. May you return to my home in Iowa city in one piece, and working. SOOO very nervous letting them send her away AND send her back to me in Iowa in three weeks or so...but what can I do? I won't be in Bloomington past May 21st, (except for one weekend in july) so ack!
This means I'll probably have to borrow a laptop from the family reserve --or rather, mom's old one which was my old one before I got Viao. at least I am fortunate enough to have a laptop to begin with, and one to use for backup to boot. (haha, okay, insert joke about "re"boot here if you so desire.) So, perhaps my desktop will work for the next few days - until the 8th when i return to IC. I hope so!

Other odds and ends:
Fixing pathfinders/syllabus has been halted due to lack of internet.

Thanks to Jill for hosting a great condo-warming in Verona. I had a fantastic time, and was so happy I was only minimally allergic to her wonderful kitties. One of which, Rayden (raven?) I didn't ask for clarification on that one-whoops cuddled up with me at night. Oh yea, she's awesome. Kept my feet warm and everything. Made me miss my kitty Scotty, who went to kitty heaven (or purgatory, I'm not sure which) September of 2004.

I find that I am cold a lot lately. Goosebumps seem to be permanent additions to my arms and legs these past months. Since I lost about 10 lbs in February. I guess what they say about fat as insulation is really true. (Don't to worry folks. The weight has stayed off due to healthy eating habbits and little exercies ---can't get the muscle back which weighs more...that will be remedied soon...)

My computer desk/shelf/stereo have found themselves a new home. YAY. Really nice girl as well.

Happy Birthday to Rena! Your fruit tart and spinach artichoke dip await.

Oh, and on the AFI front- watched Mr. Smith Goes to Washington last night (#29), and will be watching On the Waterfront (#8) with Traci tonight. Wells Media Services is kind to me.

That is all.

Deconstructing Da Vinci and other odds and ends

Okay okay, I know there is the "bandwagon" mentality about reading the Da Vinci Code.
So, if you haven't read it yet, embrace the hype and read it before the movie comes out on May 19th - a) because it's an entertaining read b) then you'll fully understand what's going on in the critical circles c)the book is likely to be ten times better than the movie --that is usually the case --though i shall reserve final judgment until after seeing the film.)
I also know there is a lot of negative talk about the book via the art historical field. (This is usually the case with a work of "fiction" that presents itself as "fact" with a tiny disclaimer.) This happened to a certain extent -at least at my own undergrad institution with books like Girl With the Pearl Earring etc. So, get on board folks. and if you want you can read Holy Blood, Holy Grail also and support those cats. Mostly because they just suffered defeat in their legal battle over copyright. You can read about that almost anywhere, and I'm too lazy to post links right now - but check out the NYT for articles about it.
allrighty, that's the post for today. I"m done w. school for two weeks,
and what have I done with my time? I validated my pathfinders from L524 and Hummanities to xhtml standards. (which took almost an hour each) I am going to revamp the pages also because they are sooo boring right now, and now that i know CSS, I can make them better from a design standpoint. I also started a website for my family - so that we can all share pictures and the latest news and new addresses...this will at least hopefully work for the younger "millenial" generation. And everyone else will at least know when addresses have been updated. I've written thank you notes for my scholarship (yay!) and a thank you note for grandma.

So, my plans for the next few months:
May 5th-8th(morning) ---Moving out of my apartment, and working at the FAL library
May 8th (afternoon)-10th--Iowa City (to see above all else the FRIENDS and FAMILY - duh!)
May 11th --driving back to B-twon for my weekend XML workshop.
May 12-15 (morning) B-town for XML workshop
May 15 (afternoon)- May 17th --Itineret (splg?) dweller hopefully camping out in a guest bedroom in Chicagoland. :)
May17th(afternoon) --driving back to B-town for Pearl/CGI workshop.
May 18th-22 (morning) Pearl/CGI workshop - B-town.
may 22 (afternoon) drive back to Iowa City.
may 22-may 26 - iowa city
may 26-may 31st -SAN FRAN to visit Steve and Victoria :):)
june 1st - Iowa City
june 18th - WICKED in CHICAGO with lis and erik - woo hoo!!!
july --b-town a certain weekend for festivities
august - graduation from SLIS
august 12th- beerfest in madison wisconsin.
and in the time in between looking for a job ---anybody wanna hire me?

Correction: Google has taken down the latest logo - for Juan Miro's birthday. Read here. And here.

Artsy Altered Logos and Images

All right, I realize as an "almost" librarian/current SLIS student, I can find merits with Google and the Google Empire, even though - technically many in the library field think that Google will be the death of all good search strategies and give all people the option of mis-information. Not to mention the fascination with "self-googlization." And yes, I have done this and periodically check to see what's new with Susan Winkler, the big and important pharmacist.

That being said, there are some very cool things in the works as part of the Google Empire. Picassa being one of the neater downloadable image management software programs. And, okay, sort of off the main stream - how about all those awesome logos they come up with for holidays and special events?


I can forsee a book entering the Fine Arts library in the future, where artists and marketing majors will study the variations of the Google logo in the same manner that people circulate the many derivations on Grant Wood's American Gothic.

Just take a look at some of these greats.

And the fan logos are nice also. Though mine would be a bumpersticker saying "I want Google to bare my children"

On a semi-related note...a recent contest challenged users of Photoshop to alter famous images in some recognizable way, without ruining the integrity of the piece. Sort of artist's highbrow/lowbrow version of "What's Wrong with this Picture"
Sponsored by Worth1000.com I find it a particularly fun (and challenging) assessment of masterpieces and works I've never seen before...even with an Art History BA. Take a look see for yourself.

Destruction in my Hometown

My hometown of Iowa City, Iowa was hit by two F2 tornadoes on Thursday night. I wasn't planning to head home for the Easter holiday - and when I'd called my mom to mkae sure they were okay, she said "You know, you were surely invited to come home if you wanted." I may have done so, and been in IC on Thursday night, if I wasn't already traveling elsewheres. It was hard not to get a bit emotional when I was trying to get the most current updates via the Internet into the morning hours on Friday. The images are pretty intense, of overturned cars, buildings without roofs, places I've visited many times over my years are no longer existing. But, the picture I've just painted in your minds may be quite bleak, and actually Iowa City and its residents were tremendously lucky. There were only minor injuries reported, and one death south of the city due to another tornado. My heart goes out to the family and relatives of that woman. Most of the people that I know didn't suffer any damage or injuries at all, though a former boss did have her car crushed and roof blown off, and friends of other people I know had damage to their cars as well. It makes me wish I was back in Iowa City this week though, so that I could help with the clean-up efforts and pitch in where people need help, either by volunteering with the Red Cross for the relief efforts or something else. I'll be back there in a few weeks though - and then I can do just that.

Perhaps it's simply because the sun has started to shine more often over the rolling hills of Southern Indiana, or perhaps it's because it is almost the end of the semester, and I should be totally stressed, but I'm not. For some weird reason I've found a contentment that I haven't felt in a very long while. I feel really good about helping my friend's mom with her website (crossing International waters and language barriers to make it happen). I feel pretty excited about some possible prospects for me when I return to Iowa City as far as potential job ops. And I've been able to contribute to some really interesting "cutting edge" type research here at IU recently. Thanks to some classroom knowledge and practical application of such.
That is perhaps what I've been waiting for while here at SLIS. The melding of my theoretical school and the practical usefulness of what I've learned about. Hopefully things will pan out with this experiement.

On other fronts, if you look for me this weekend, you should look out of town, and if you look for me next weekend, you should do the same. I'm doing some roadtripping...and as long as I've got wireless access where I'm at, everything will still get done.

So yup, that's the update.

Misa visits today, Casey visits tomorrow. much to do much to do, but, happy to have ppl coming to visit yay!!! Sites to finish....anybody really understand CSS positioning? I seem to have positioned myself out of the loop on that, in both the relative and absolute sense, so I'm off to ask the professor why I can't float images in the proper spots...

have a good weekend all!

Been tryin out some new "blog enhancements" lately. We'll see if they work.