Digital Breeze

It's that time of year again, break out the Kleenex because my head is under attack. Something must have gotten under my mucus membrane skin last night, my sinuses are going crazy today. Eyes watering, nose running, pressure headache....CHECK. I should have known better than to assume I could get away with enjoying this warm winter weather without having an attack...should have seen it coming. Hopefully this will pass quickly, as school started today, and I don't want to show up on the first day of my internship with draining fluids. Snot and rare book collection do not mix.

Edouard Manet, A Bar at the Folies Bergere , 1882

Back and on the attack, it's Monday! The weekend slowly crept in on Friday and began the long crawl to Sunday, it was amazing. It's been a long time since I've had such a slow and relaxing time, I soaked it all in and tried to appreciate the rich molasses passing of seconds/minutes/hours. Much time was spent on the couch watching endless matches of the Australian Open (*see previous posts). We also ran a few errands around the city, I did some light reading, and we hung out with friends like it was going out of style. Maybe what struck me was how pleasant the weather was, laying on the couch with the warm breeze and the light easing in through the blinds. Winter ain't that bad in Southern California. It's important to absorb all of these moments before school starts on Wednesday. I'm looking forward to getting all of my classes and my internship underway, every week that passes brings me closer to my goal of graduating.

Monica Majoli, Rubberman #2 , 2007

When people start getting real...the real world: Phillip. I'm admitting my addiction, it ain't pretty I'll admit. Yes things might be a little out of control and maybe I can't stop. I'm not hurting anyone but myself, I refuse to feel bad about my dark, dark.....yellow secret. Okay I'm addicted to watching the Australian Open Tennis tournament on TV. I can't stop! I love tennis! This years tournament, while only five days old has already had many highlights, low-lights, and hysterical moments. Can we please talk about Radwanska and her racquet snapping in half? How the eff does this even happen? The look on her face was priceless while she was still clutching onto the racquet. Gurl just drop it already, you are a freak and so is your busted racquet, so walk your Polish ass over to yo' bag and grab a new one, cuz I know you have like 5 extras, being a fancy ass pro tennis player and all. This year it's anyone's game on the women's...

a still image from Isaac Julien's The Attendant , 1993

School begins next week, as does my internship, all's well that ends well...goodbye winter break, how I loved thee. Time to dust off my notebooks, charge up my Kindle, and prepare my autonomic nervous system for increased stress levels. I'm not exactly anticipating that crazy of a course load, my classes are pretty specific and should not require too much writing. I hope to hell that I'm not jinxing myself, but I suspect that the work will be more technical and straight forward. One class is about Preservation Management, dealing with different issues in book preservation and conservation. We get to do cool exercises like dip a book in water and figure out how to rescue it...and I don't mean with a life raft or floaty, I mean how to get the water out of the book and back in working condition. The second class I'm taking is on Encoded Archival Description (EAD), which is an XML encoding system for archival finding aids. This class could potentially drive me ba...

David Hockney, Peter Getting Out of Nick's Pool, 1966

It's been a good break these past couple of weeks off. I've managed to finish reading three Star Trek: Voyager books. Here's a quick rundown of each of them: Book 1: Caretaker This was a rehashing of the first episode in the series. Not too different from the it's television counterpart, a bit more in-depth in the beginning of the story. The Voyager is about to undertake a trip to track down the Maquis renegades when the entire ship is kidnapped and taken across the universe...thus beginning the entire series. You learn about Paris and his imprisonment, and just how he betrayed the Maquis. I must admit I was a bit choked up by the end of the story, damn that Janeway! Book 2: The Escape The second book sees Voyager well on their way heading back to the Alpha quadrant. As supplies are running low, they discover a planet rich with metal resources their ship desperately needs. Janeway makes the decision send a team down to investigate the seemingly abandoned planet...

R E C E P T I V I T Y

These days keep rushing by. This is supposed to be my time off before school starts again. It keeps flying past me. My time is fleeting, I can never hold on to it. I keep getting older, my hands and body feel colder. I want everything to pass extremely slow, to stop, to freeze. I want to touch, to feel, to pull things close to me. How can I be still? When it rains everything becomes clear, everything new again. It all feels different than it used to, foreign, not good or bad, just new. Can I snap my perspective back into existence? Image: Brancusi - Sleeping

I was driving home the other day, just from driving around the city, thinking about stuff...that bizarre moment when you think about yourself in the third person. I was just reflecting on things I do, good, bad, somewhere in the middle behaviors, and since it was around New Years I was trying to focus on positive ideas and thoughts, forward thinking. And then...streaming over my phone on Pandora radio to my car stereo comes...Aimee Mann's Wise up from the Magnolia soundtrack. Thanks Aimee, your lyrics ruined my train of thought and slammed me back into the mud. Of course it just made me laugh...silly lyrics....but Aimee still insisted "...it's not going to stop...you're sure...there's a cure...so just give up" Okay Aimee, alright already. After a moment lapse I concluded that Aimee's songs are a bit overly dramatic, but that I still love her and shouldn't take her songs personally. Bitch don't ruin my buzz. Speaking of music, Adele's R...

Welcome to my 2011 bitches, yes that's right, all your years are mine. Well some of them at least, okay fine, can I just have everyone's January? Yes! All of your Januarys are mine. Which means nothing exactly, well other than giving me a temporary feeling of power and dominance. Ahhh back to reality. Speaking of which has been quite busy of late, the holidays came and went, parties happened, money was spent, and I ate, ate, ate zillions of cookies in the process. All around my break from work was nice, I think I clocked in over 200 hours sitting on the couch watching the Housewives of Atlanta...yes I love Kim...and her wig. They're contagious! No really, I think I'm developing a rash...on my eyes. Though much of my time was spent reclining around the house, I did get done a few things that were on my list. I managed to meet with the Archivist at the One National Gay & Lesbian Archive , I went in ready to make my case for interning there, however he inste...