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Misc Stuff
Feb. 27th, 2006 09:49 pm(I actually wrote this next bit last Wednesday -- working the little thumb-keyboard of my Treo while waiting for my turn at the County Clerk's.)
Another step in the grand house transaction -- the deed transferring ownership is recorded. So many big steps in life seem to lack clear-cut borders and definite climaxes. My PhD was like that. There were a lot of little donenesses, but the events that should have marked the big doneness came too early in the process to be emotionally satisfying as a climax. The actual final step in my PhD wasn't walking at graduation or handing in my thesis -- it involved taking an envelope of paperwork to a clerk in a small office who checked things off on a list and handed me a receipt. Luckily, the clerk had a sense of her symbolic importance and handed out congratulatory lollipops. It's funny what makes a difference.
The house has been a bit similar although a lot more compressed. Lots of little donenesses, trailing off into mere tidying up. I often envy people who manage to coordinate the symbolic external events with the internal reality. But we all have our own rhythms, I suppose.
(And returning to the present ....)
I spent Saturday immersed in geekery with SK, learning how to turn my Filemaker database for the Surviving Garments Project into a MySQL database to put onto the web. We wrestled the main data table into submission. My current homework is to write the code for the other tables and map out what sorts of queries I want to make available. I also need to set up a copy of the database and web interface on my laptop for the presentation at Kalamazoo. And I need to practice setting up the laptop with a projector so I won't look like a complete idiot for the presentation. (Fortunately we have computer projectors at work that I can practice on.)
After the geekery, we went off to an Indian restaurant for dinner then back to her place for some Tivoed Olympics. I was so zapped at that point that I let myself get talked into crashing there for the night. Since xrian had cancelled out on apprentice day Sunday and the rain obliterated any chance at doing yard work, we hung out watching more Olympics until noon, then I stopped by Fry's on my way home for dangerous browsing. I spent quite a while drooling over the computer projectors and thinking about blowing some money -- if a salesperson had considered me worth talking to, I probably would have walked out of there with a projector, but I wasn't in a mood to beg them to assist me so I didn't. I did, however, buy a new vacuum cleaner -- something I've been vaguely shopping for for the last half year or so. I still think it's weird to buy home appliances at a computer store. It's even weirder that vacuum cleaners seem to be cheaper (at least on the low end) than they were 25 years ago when I last bought one.
Another step in the grand house transaction -- the deed transferring ownership is recorded. So many big steps in life seem to lack clear-cut borders and definite climaxes. My PhD was like that. There were a lot of little donenesses, but the events that should have marked the big doneness came too early in the process to be emotionally satisfying as a climax. The actual final step in my PhD wasn't walking at graduation or handing in my thesis -- it involved taking an envelope of paperwork to a clerk in a small office who checked things off on a list and handed me a receipt. Luckily, the clerk had a sense of her symbolic importance and handed out congratulatory lollipops. It's funny what makes a difference.
The house has been a bit similar although a lot more compressed. Lots of little donenesses, trailing off into mere tidying up. I often envy people who manage to coordinate the symbolic external events with the internal reality. But we all have our own rhythms, I suppose.
(And returning to the present ....)
I spent Saturday immersed in geekery with SK, learning how to turn my Filemaker database for the Surviving Garments Project into a MySQL database to put onto the web. We wrestled the main data table into submission. My current homework is to write the code for the other tables and map out what sorts of queries I want to make available. I also need to set up a copy of the database and web interface on my laptop for the presentation at Kalamazoo. And I need to practice setting up the laptop with a projector so I won't look like a complete idiot for the presentation. (Fortunately we have computer projectors at work that I can practice on.)
After the geekery, we went off to an Indian restaurant for dinner then back to her place for some Tivoed Olympics. I was so zapped at that point that I let myself get talked into crashing there for the night. Since xrian had cancelled out on apprentice day Sunday and the rain obliterated any chance at doing yard work, we hung out watching more Olympics until noon, then I stopped by Fry's on my way home for dangerous browsing. I spent quite a while drooling over the computer projectors and thinking about blowing some money -- if a salesperson had considered me worth talking to, I probably would have walked out of there with a projector, but I wasn't in a mood to beg them to assist me so I didn't. I did, however, buy a new vacuum cleaner -- something I've been vaguely shopping for for the last half year or so. I still think it's weird to buy home appliances at a computer store. It's even weirder that vacuum cleaners seem to be cheaper (at least on the low end) than they were 25 years ago when I last bought one.
