John Michel playing the Dvorak cello concerto! Woot woot! It's so stuck in my head along with the Firebird.
Hmm, well, I have a paper to write... it will be nonstop homework hell from now until NY. Oh joy.
Saturday, April 30, 2005
Thursday, April 28, 2005
This entry is about library archives
Today, I went to the library to research my paper topic; the paper's due on Tuesday. I'm in this history seminar, Orwell's England, where we have to write a research paper every two weeks - realistically, we have a week to write each paper. It's quite tricky.
So, I spent a while on the computer looking for stuff on malnutrition in 1930s Britain. It seems like there was a big fight between those who thought malnutrition was caused by poverty (=lack of money to buy adequate food, this was a more socialist or lefty view) or the working classes' lack of education about what food one should eat (Orwell found this quite condescending). Anyway, that's my topic, I think. I got a really good grade on the last paper, so I'm nervous about doing badly on this one. After I got some citations, I went up to the fourth floor and found the LC call number "TX"... unfortunately, two of the three books on nutrition policy in Britain were missing! Ye Gods! I presumed it was one of my classmates doing the same topic, BUT the books had been marked "available" on the computer, and hadn't been checked out yet, so... the bastard was still in the library! My eyes narrowed and immediately I cast furtive looks around the study areas. I also (God, this is shameful) scoped out the circulation desks on the first and second floors as well as most of the study areas, ready to pounce (I know what all my classmates look like because there are only 13 of us).
The really embarassing part is that I constructed a romantic fantasy around this incident. It went like this. I would find the (presumed to be male, and a lot sexier and buffer than any of the guys in the seminar) classmate in the library and tap him on the shoulder.
"Hey! Working on your research paper?"
"Yep... you?"
"Yeah... (good natured groan) May I ask what topic you're doing?"
"Oh... I'm doing nutrition in 1930s Britain."
"No kidding! Because... hahaha... me too! And I think you checked out the two most important books, cause I was just up on the fourth floor and they weren't there!"
"Oh, hahahahaha!"
Here we arrange to share our sources in a mutually agreeable fashion. We might also have a brief conversation about nutrition in 1930s Britain.
Then the fantasy got a lot less specific, but the key point is that on the basis of this library source-finding meeting, a long-term, affectionate, satisfying relationship is born. At the wedding (or at a party, I didn't really go so far as marriage), a good friend would ask how we met, and I'd chuckle fondly and tell the story... how I found my ideal History Geek.
And the moral of that story is (how did bridget jones put it?) I'm a lonely sad act gagging for sex. Or at least physical companionship.
After I came back down to Earth and realised I wasn't going to find my soulmate anytime soon, I went to the basement and hung out in Government Publications for a while. Our professor (George Behlmer... I recommend him) wants us to use Parliamentary Papers as a primary source, which I didn't in the last paper. For those of you who haven't been to Gov Pubs, it's creepy: low ceilings, a noisy fan, columns of books that move (no, seriously, they move... they're on castors that are set in the floor and you have to turn a crank), almost no people... well, it's hard to explain, but it's not a very pleasant place. I got this older man (bit weird) from the information desk to help me find Health reports, but after about twenty minutes we discovered that the library doesn't have them. The man said, "Do you by any chance have Professor Behlmer?" He showed me how to locate stuff in the debates and sessionary papers, though, so I did that a bit: you take large stacks of enormous books out onto one of the tables, look up "Public Health - Malnutrition" in the back and then copy all the relevant pages. After looking through six books and only finding a few pages to copy, I decided to screw that and come back tomorrow.
So, that's the library saga, such as it is, or perhaps it isn't much of a saga at all. Oh, and I checked those two books this evening and turns out they're still available, so unless Imaginary Sexy History Classmate has been in the library reading about 1930s Britain for nine hours, I suppose I might have jumped to the wrong conclusion at the very beginning - perhaps the books are waiting to be reshelved, I'll have to investigate tomorrow.
I had been at the library from 10.30-2.00. Yeech! I went to the annex for an hour after that, ate lunch, and found out from Mindy that the play video is kinda watcheable, and she's going to edit it so it is more so. Yessssssss!!! I will definitely be getting a copy.
In other news, part of the white thing that's at the tip of violin bows came off my bow a couple weeks ago, and I still haven't informed my parents. Damn. ("And when did this happen?") My bow is very expensive.
So, I spent a while on the computer looking for stuff on malnutrition in 1930s Britain. It seems like there was a big fight between those who thought malnutrition was caused by poverty (=lack of money to buy adequate food, this was a more socialist or lefty view) or the working classes' lack of education about what food one should eat (Orwell found this quite condescending). Anyway, that's my topic, I think. I got a really good grade on the last paper, so I'm nervous about doing badly on this one. After I got some citations, I went up to the fourth floor and found the LC call number "TX"... unfortunately, two of the three books on nutrition policy in Britain were missing! Ye Gods! I presumed it was one of my classmates doing the same topic, BUT the books had been marked "available" on the computer, and hadn't been checked out yet, so... the bastard was still in the library! My eyes narrowed and immediately I cast furtive looks around the study areas. I also (God, this is shameful) scoped out the circulation desks on the first and second floors as well as most of the study areas, ready to pounce (I know what all my classmates look like because there are only 13 of us).
The really embarassing part is that I constructed a romantic fantasy around this incident. It went like this. I would find the (presumed to be male, and a lot sexier and buffer than any of the guys in the seminar) classmate in the library and tap him on the shoulder.
"Hey! Working on your research paper?"
"Yep... you?"
"Yeah... (good natured groan) May I ask what topic you're doing?"
"Oh... I'm doing nutrition in 1930s Britain."
"No kidding! Because... hahaha... me too! And I think you checked out the two most important books, cause I was just up on the fourth floor and they weren't there!"
"Oh, hahahahaha!"
Here we arrange to share our sources in a mutually agreeable fashion. We might also have a brief conversation about nutrition in 1930s Britain.
Then the fantasy got a lot less specific, but the key point is that on the basis of this library source-finding meeting, a long-term, affectionate, satisfying relationship is born. At the wedding (or at a party, I didn't really go so far as marriage), a good friend would ask how we met, and I'd chuckle fondly and tell the story... how I found my ideal History Geek.
And the moral of that story is (how did bridget jones put it?) I'm a lonely sad act gagging for sex. Or at least physical companionship.
After I came back down to Earth and realised I wasn't going to find my soulmate anytime soon, I went to the basement and hung out in Government Publications for a while. Our professor (George Behlmer... I recommend him) wants us to use Parliamentary Papers as a primary source, which I didn't in the last paper. For those of you who haven't been to Gov Pubs, it's creepy: low ceilings, a noisy fan, columns of books that move (no, seriously, they move... they're on castors that are set in the floor and you have to turn a crank), almost no people... well, it's hard to explain, but it's not a very pleasant place. I got this older man (bit weird) from the information desk to help me find Health reports, but after about twenty minutes we discovered that the library doesn't have them. The man said, "Do you by any chance have Professor Behlmer?" He showed me how to locate stuff in the debates and sessionary papers, though, so I did that a bit: you take large stacks of enormous books out onto one of the tables, look up "Public Health - Malnutrition" in the back and then copy all the relevant pages. After looking through six books and only finding a few pages to copy, I decided to screw that and come back tomorrow.
So, that's the library saga, such as it is, or perhaps it isn't much of a saga at all. Oh, and I checked those two books this evening and turns out they're still available, so unless Imaginary Sexy History Classmate has been in the library reading about 1930s Britain for nine hours, I suppose I might have jumped to the wrong conclusion at the very beginning - perhaps the books are waiting to be reshelved, I'll have to investigate tomorrow.
I had been at the library from 10.30-2.00. Yeech! I went to the annex for an hour after that, ate lunch, and found out from Mindy that the play video is kinda watcheable, and she's going to edit it so it is more so. Yessssssss!!! I will definitely be getting a copy.
In other news, part of the white thing that's at the tip of violin bows came off my bow a couple weeks ago, and I still haven't informed my parents. Damn. ("And when did this happen?") My bow is very expensive.
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