This Side of Lost

That's what my quaint little college town is colloquially known as (on zillions of t-shirts). Two topics on which this town is unlike any other I've lived in:

1. Alcohol. IU was named the No. 1 party school in the nation two years ago. I wondered what this meant for a long time. I think I'm getting some grasp of exactly why now. Let me tell you about some of the drink specials I've seen advertised recently:
   • Thurs at Bear's Place: 32 oz pitchers of Long Island Iced Tea for $5
   • Fri at Bear's Place: 22 oz Bud, Bud Light, MGD bottles for $2.50
   • Thurs at Yogi's: $2.50 specialty Smirnoff martinis
   • Wed at Jungle Room: 12 oz cups of MGD lite for 25¢
   • Thurs at Jungle Room: $1.50 Domestic Pints
   • Fri at Jungle Room: 24 oz Coors Light $1.50, 20 oz Killians Red $2
   And my current favorite...
   • Thurs at Axis: All lite drafts: 5¢
   Yeah. In Ramsey's words, "There's no reason not to get trashed every single day of the week here. Unless you want to pass."
2. Sports. Football season begins today. I went up to the stadium (within walking distance of my house) to watch the marching band's preshow concert and check out the scene. I've never seen so many red shirts in one place. There were dozens of mobile homes and people of all ages. I just heard fireworks go off (I'm back at my house now). I heard a dad telling his 3-4 year old son: "Can you say 'Go IU?' " "Go IU!" he parroted back.

Wow. And the football team is terrible. I can't wait for basketball season.

In other news:

• I'm through my first week of class successfully...
• Wednesday was L401, Computer-Based Information Tools. I waived the first two modules of this course, but I didn't learn until an hour and a half into class that I didn't have to be there, and won't until Week 6 of class. Ah ha.
• Wednesday was also C471, Chemical Information Sources and Services (aka Chem Info). The professor, Gary Wiggins, is apparently world-renowned for his knowledge in this. Neat guy.
• Thursday was L527, Management in Libraries and Information Centers (aka Management). I've never really given thought to a job in management before, but after this first class, the idea sounds vaguely interesting. This should be fun.
• Friday was L624, Information Sources in Science and Technology (aka Sci Info). This will definitely be my semester for broadening my repertoire of information sources across my field.
• ... and I have hundreds of pages of reading to do for next week. Whew. Here we go.
• Choir auditions are finally done. I am now a member of the Contemporary Vocal Ensemble. This was not my first choice or even my second choice. But Dr. Tellez was willing to take me even though I'll be missing most of Monday's rehearsals. I suppose I should be grateful for this.
• I have DSL at home now. It runs like greased lightning.
• I've eaten an entire package of Pepperidge Farm Soft Baked Chocolate Chunk Cookies over the past 24 hours. I'm not proud of this.

I'm off to find dinner and something to do besides sit in front of the computer. Wish me luck... peace.

Being a librarian is easy, right? You just sit at the desk and shush people who are noisy. That's all it takes, right? So why is Andrew wasting his time at graduate school?

In order to answer questions like this: "If a patron comes up to you and asks you for information on how to freebase cocaine, do you provide it?"

What would you do?

The unfortunate thing about this question is that however you answer, there are problems with your morals and ethics. If the answer is yes, you are clearly endangering the person you are providing this information to. Before, they did not know anything about freebasing cocaine -- now they do, and are possibly going to put their own life in danger. If the answer is no, you are in essence being a censor. You are not providing information when that is precisely what someone in your occupation is supposed to do -- provide information. You start sliding down the slippery slope. Now where do you draw the line? Books about marajiuana? Books about cigarettes and alcohol? Books about prescription drugs? What if this information is needed for important research? Are we, as providers of information, also called to be providers of guidelines for moral conduct?

Geez. This was the topic of my class session in Reference yesterday. This is not an easy job.

In other news:

• I have no class today. Four hours at the Chem Libe and choir rehearsal is it. Sweet.
• I'm teaching tomorrow. My boss at the Chem Libe has recruited me to do some bibliographic instruction sessions to some Intro to Biology labs. Whoo! So's I get to stand up in front of freshmen and talk about the library's website and Biological Abstracts, an indexing service. Send good thoughts my way (especially about the hardware I'll be using -- it's notoriously sketchy).
• A stupid sophomore sat down in front of me at lunch today. He had the audacity to be wearing a New York Yankees t-shirt. Business major. Yeesh.

Choir rehearsal is next. :) Peace.

I am the Rob Grace of SLIS at Indiana University.

(If you're reading this, Rob, please know I write this only with the utmost respect for you after getting to know you later on.)

Some of you perhaps remember Rob's behavior freshman year. I recall many a lunch or dinner in the old caf, sitting with some of the Kitt boys, and watching Rob walk by, tray held high, following or leading about 6 girls to a table. We'd wave him over, and he'd shake his head, with that little smile. What a mac daddy.

I never understood exactly what causes this behavior. I do know.

As previously mentioned, the gender ratio here at SLIS is heavy in my favor. Much like Kittelsby Hall at St. Olaf. So the chances of me running into and meeting girls here is much higher than the chances of me running into and meeting boys. It's not that I'm really expressly trying to meet as many girls as I can. I'm just being friendly and open... and I can't help it that I'm naturally going to gravitate towards beautiful women, can I?

So what is the result? One of my new friends here states that whenever she sees me, I'm surrounded by women. I can't believe this is true. But I'm gathering that perhaps it is. Not by any conscious doing of my own. Just by the combination of circumstances. When I think of the people I've met so far that I can name, I can think of nine that are female and three that are male.

Could this be what happened to Rob? He's a friendly guy, and certainly not adverse to the company of a pretty girl. And from what I know of him, he's not a player in personality. Could the same thing be happening to me?

Stay tuned...

NICKEL CREEK IS COMING TO BLOOMINGTON OCTOBER 10! WOO-HOO!!

<pant pant> Okay, I'm done. That was just really exciting. Probably the most exciting news I've gotten in months. I missed my last chance to see them in August when I saw Dave Matthews instead (a bad choice, according to Kari Pearson), and I thought it'd be much much longer until I got another chance. Imagine my excitement when I opened up the Indiana Daily Student today and saw the news brief.

That's pretty much it for my main entry. Sorry, my life isn't too exciting right now...

In other news:

• I've started my third week of school. I have assignments now. :( Unfortunately, I still hasn't kicked into a "school" frame of mind. I've already let some reading slide, and almost let an assignment slide yesterday. Yikes... I'd better kick it here...
• My choir started looking at a Daniel-Lesur piece yesterday. For you choral geeks out there, he's a contemporary French composer in the same school as Messiaen and Durufle. It sounds pretty awesome. It's also pretty hard.
• I lost the first Limestone Manor game of Risk. My opening position was fairly spread out, and I think I abandoned too many of my territories. That combined with an extremely unlucky and failed attempt to secure Australia was my undoing.
• Mad Mushroom is definitely the best pizza I've had in Bloomington so far. I've yet to try Mother Bear, so we shall see how long it reigns.

That's it. I'm at work at the Chem Libe right now, so I suppose I should actually do some work... peace.

Three weeks until Nickel Creek! :)

For those of you who didn't know, I'm a big fan of the Minnesota Twins, my hometown baseball team. And for those of you who don't know, they have a pitcher named Johan Santana. And this pitcher is unbelievable. Just head on over to the Twin's page at ESPN and you will find a number of links to this man's amazing season. Tonight, for instance, he pitched eight innings of shutout ball, striking out 14 batters. Fourteen. Wow.

I saw a few cool musical acts at the Lotus Festival here in Bloomington yesterday. Rachael Davis is a Michigan native making a name for herself in the Boston area as a singer/songwriter. She was fabulous. A band called Fruit from Australia sang some amazing and very passionate music, with great harmonies. And the Dorkestra was cool, too -- although honestly, I just wanted to be able to say I've seen a band called the Dorkestra.

In other news:

• My old enemy, procrastination, has returned. Hopefully grad school will be more forgiving than teaching was in this regard. Somethings tells me this is unlikely, however.
• Gillian sent homemade cookies last week. She's my hero. Unsurprisingly, they're almost gone.
• Summer is still here. Sigh. Has fall arrived yet in Minnesota?
• I've had a couple interesting e-mails exchanged with Megan... for those of you who know, they've been honest and very productive -- I'm feeling much more resolved about old, old issues. This is good news.
• Thanks to Rob for the personal note! I'll write back soon, Rob.

Time for bed. Ah, sleep deprivation, how I've missed thee... peace, y'all.

Have I mentioned yet that I'm really enjoying graduate school?

I'm really enjoying graduate school. :) First of all, IU is awesome. There's nothing quite like a huge, public university campus. I mean, look at the Chemistry building. Yes, not just the Science building, but the Chemistry building. It's so cool. It doesn't have a foofy name, like the life sciences building (Jordan Hall) or the physics and math building (Swain Hall). It is named solely after its purpose. And it's got element symbols and even the old alchemist's symbols engraved into the stonework.

The opportunities here are seemingly endless. I mean, I want to go into the field of chemical information and librarianship. And when I apply, voilà!, I am given a graduate assistantship in chemical information and librarianship. Indeed, I will likely graduate with a certificate in chemical information. What could be better?

When I registered, I ordered opera season tickets. So I just got my ticket in the mail for this Friday's production of La Bohème. I get tickets to opera in the mail. Sweet. The music school here is crazy -- there are concerts every week, with symphonies, choirs, solo artists, visiting musicians... most of them for free.

And the work isn't even that hard. (Not yet at least. We'll see what I have to say about that in a couple months.) So I've got time to explore all these things. I'd go to a Chamber Orchestra tonight if I didn't have life maintenance things to do.

Yeah. Things are good. :)

In other news:

• The Twins clinched first place in their division. Yes! Playoffs, here we come!
• My friend Samantha beat me handily at NTN Trivia last night. Sigh. This is vaguely related to the previous item, as I unfortunately missed the question asking what famous Chicago landmark is at Addison and Clark. Jeremy would be ashamed of me.
• I've eaten waaay too much pizza in the last week.

Me: "I'm a picture of health."
Samantha: "You're a picture of somethin'."

Less than two weeks until Nickel Creek! :)

Reality is starting to set in here. This is a good thing, actually. I was kind of irresponsible all weekend, and it bit me in the butt Monday morning. And it probably will again before the week is out... I've got my first big paper due on Thursday, and naturally, I haven't started. Sweet. I'm realizing that perhaps I still haven't kicked in to a "school year" frame of mind. I guess it's about time.

I did go to my first (and possibly last) Hoosier football game on Saturday. The weather was beautiful, the company was great, and the football was painful. But then I had Japanese for dinner and Cold Stone for dessert. So that redeemed the day.

I think Tuesday might be my second favorite weekday (after Friday, of course). It's very pleasant to have no class after Monday. It reminds me of my friend Galen Heimerl from high school, who would frequently skip school on Tuesdays his junior year. He figured that was his reward for getting through Monday. This is the man who was choir president the next year. You're awesome, Galen.

In other news:

• My Sci Info class is visiting the Chemistry Library on Friday. Whee! Roger said I get to help teach a little about structure searching. I'm teaching my own class! I love graduate school. (For those of you who are chemistry nerds: yes, you can actually use ISISDraw or some other structure drawing tool, 'port the picture into a database interface and it will search for substances and/or reactions involving that molecule. This blew me away the first time I looked at it.)
• My Reference course has an ongoing assignment to collect relevant sources on a particular topic as we learn about them. My topic is alchemy. Apparently there's a lot more to it than just trying to transmute lead into gold.
• Quote of the Week 2: "My Molecular Biology prof has a Boston accent. I could never live in Boston. I can't understand why everyone in Boston doesn't walk around punching each other." - David, Chem Lib front desk worker

I'm working on a chemical crash course for my Sci Info class. Better finish up. Peace.