Renaissance Man

I have a love-hate relationship with libraries. I love them, because they are so full of such a wide variety of books that are so full of the most interesting things, and I hate them, because they depress me, because they always remind me of all the information and knowledge that is out there that I will never know --- that I *can* never know. (Bookstores have a similar effect on me, but libraries are worse, because in libraries I can read all those books for *free*! (Relatively speaking.) There's no cost-benefit, guilt-flavoured argument to overcome.) When, oh when, will I have the time to read all that I want to read, to learn all that I want to learn? The printed word is my "Ooh, shiny!" --- if there's writing on it, I have to read it, and if there's the remotest chance that I may enjoy reading it or need to read/refer to it again, I will hoard it. My own bookshelves at home are full of books that I have picked up over the years (mostly for free or at bargain prices) but which I haven't yet read. To say nothing of the steadily growing stacks of newspapers and magazines. I can't wait to retire, and finally have time to read them all!

PS: Okay, fine, I don't really hate libraries. They are wonderful entities, and not at all deserving of such intense negative regard. Rather, it's the way they make me feel that I hate.

Life is skittles, and life is beer!

Spring is here, suh-puh-ring is here! And, as much as I haven't gotten in all the snowboarding that I wanted this winter (yes, I have been *several* times this season, and I did venture onto the black diamonds, still, I haven't completely mastered the blues yet, and I haven't yet gotten any air --- while my skiing friend Brandon has! --- and that bothers me no little amount), I'm happy for the arrival of warm weather. The birds are singing in the trees, squirrels are bounding about, Bagheera is going hyper in the windows and chafing at being confined indoors (I so would love to take him out and let him run free, but I have little enthusiasm for the prospect of chasing him myself over hill and dale and up a tree to bring him back. I could put him on an extended leash, as I did when I gave him his first taste of The Great Outdoors a few weeks ago, but he'd probably choke himself to death in a mad dash to the end of the clothesline.), the women-folk are shedding their winter coats for skirts, shorts and spaghetti-strap tops... ahh, life is good.

Post-doctoral perks

As much as I consider my current employment situation as a post-doctoral Research Associate as simply something temporary, to last only until I find myself a `real' job, there do exist certain perks to the position, an example of which I experienced about a week ago. I was driving onto campus for some late-night work in the lab, and slowed down at the entrance to campus for the usual ID-card check --- when the semester is in session, and [undergrad] students are occupying the residence halls, the campus police close off all entrances to campus, except three, between roughly the hours of 10 pm and 4 am, and check the identities of the drivers of all vehicles entering campus through those remaining three entrances. Only those vehicles that have an occupant affiliated with the university --- student, faculty, or staff --- are allowed in. And, unless you have a university/campus parking permit, your name, vehicle license number and on-campus destination are logged. I don't have a permit (I typically cycle to campus); consequently, my entrances are always logged. So, that night, expecting the usual 30--40-second wait while my particulars are noted down, I approached the single-file checkpoint as I always do: headlights switched off (`dimmed'), window rolled down, left arm out the window holding out my ID card ready for the police auxiliary to inspect. My new ID card. My new ID card, which now says "Faculty/Staff" instead of "Graduate Student". And the young undergrad police auxiliary kid looked briefly at my card, and without skipping a beat waved me on, with a very respectful "You're good, sir."

I couldn't stop chuckling, all the rest of the way to my lab.