The water flows on and on, down from the pipe where…

ok, so we were advised today to not drink tapwater because it had been sitting stagnant all day. Unfortunately the first we all head of this was from emergency recorded phone calls at 5:30am. No news is good news at 5:30am. Though the emergency phone alert system is very nice. During the CMU bomb threat last week they provided regular updates on who was doing what when. Though I was shocked hearing a recorded voice tell me a building less than 100 yards from me was under a bomb threat I ended up being glad to know. My RA assures me CMU has never been this accident/badness prone before. We’re just getting all of our bad luck out of our system so we will have a beautiful and peaceful winter (knocks on wood). They (the school administration) set up porta-johns around campus yesterday in case the water pressure became dire and this morning and all day they were handing out gallons of water. It was a little like being in a very rich very upper class refugee camp. I noticed more and more people holding their water gallons, or savoring their juice drinks during meal times. Perhaps this is all an elaborate (and expensive) was for us all to understand how precious the safeties we assume we have really are. That’s all for now!

Inspirational quote:

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux
We find rest in those we love, and we provide a resting place in ourselves for those who love us

Water water everywhere but…

So, on the note of funny things Universities do, here are two emails I received today:

This one, titled “Water Main UPDATE” was received at 6:42pm

8/30/07 6:00 p.m. Update - Water Main Break Affects Campus:

Pittsburgh city officials are continuing work to repair a major water main break in Oakland near the corner of Centre Avenue and North Dithridge Street. The break is affecting water service to campus as well as to residents in Oakland, Squirrel Hill, Greenfield and Shadyside.

Available water is safe to drink and bathroom facilities may be used to the degree water pressure allows. Greg Tutsook, executive director of the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority is asking affected residents with low water pressure to conserve water as much as possible.

It is expected that water service will be restored sometime after midnight, with full pressure in the system by 6 a.m. tomorrow. Campus buildings have either low water pressure or no water. To the degree that there is water, pressure is better on the lower floors of buildings, therefore the use of available restroom facilities on the lower floors is encouraged. Air conditioning capacity is also reduced in many facilities.

Portable restrooms have been delivered to the Morewood Gardens Parking Lot and in front of the Margaret Morrison Plaza on Margaret Morrison Street.

Temporary cooling equipment has been ordered to keep essential network servers and computing equipment working.

Bottled water is available at the various campus dining facilities.

Evening classes at the Heinz School have been cancelled.

Experiments dependent on water and air conditioning should be shut down as soon as possible.

Resident students with special needs should rely on their residence life staff for support.

A further update will be posted at www.cmu.edu and at my.cmu.edu [Me: link won't work for non-CMU people] by 10 p.m. Thursday, August 30th.

And this one, titled “Water Main follow up” was received at 6:59pm

Dear Campus Resident,

Assessment and repair of the water main break in Oakland has begun, but we
still have no estimate on when full water service will be restored.

Campus dining facilities are almost all still open and serving for dinner
and late-night.

Port-a-johns have arrived on campus and have been placed behind Morewood
Gardens and on Margaret Morrison Street near the Margaret Morrison Plaza.

Please continue to check www.cmu.edu or the portal for regular updates.

Thank you.

Does this mean that there won’t be water by 6am tomorrow? On the note of servers kept cool, they’ve locked the cluster downstairs because of the water shortage. We were all confuzed until we realized that the water shortage was effecting the AC, not the computer’s internal cooling systems. For non-CMU people, “clusters” are computer labs. We call them clusters because it sounds cooler–and geekier. And the thing about the AC being shut down in kind of funny, since most dorms do not have AC and the dorms who do–did–have it were really obnoxious about it. Seriously, at spirit competitions, I think they had cheers about their AC. If you don’t believe me, try living in Pittsburgh without AC.

Inspirational quote:

John Maynard Keynes — “The market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent”

PS: go here for images of what has varyingly described as “gushing” water, “a river” and “white-water-rapids” in Oakland area.

http://kdka.com/local/local_story_242131849.html

A tea party without water

Today I held the first weekly tea party for my floor. And after planning it for a week, I hear from two separate sources that water is out at CMU. An article is here.

At 2:55pm I received an email which reads:

Dear Campus Resident,

There is a major water main break in Oakland that is affecting the availability of water and/or water pressure in many campus buildings. We do not have an estimate at this time on when full water service will be restored.

Please conserve water in cooking and in bathroom facilities. Do not flush toilets or wash dishes unless absolutely necessary. It is possible that you will experience complete water loss, so again, use any water that you have sparingly.

For residences that have central air conditioning that are dependent on water supply, that AC will stop working shortly.

Updates will be posted on the university’s website and on the portal.

Thank you.

(followed by contact info I don’t particularly want to post to save someone from spamming.)

I also heard from my RA that if water does not get turned on soon we might have to evacuate because the fire-sprinklers for the dorms will be ineffective against fire. He overview ed CMU’s evacuation plan, which involves moving students to pre-arranged spaces, like local high schools and dormitories.

But this is not nearly as immediately important as my tea party. I gathered about 3 liters of water from which to make tea and I had a tea party for my floor. Here are some of my left-over muffins. There is no more of the banana-strawberry-walnut bread (to make: use Baking Illustrated’s Banana Bread recipe and substitute 1/3 of a cup of Danon Strawberry lite yogurt for the plain yogurt and vanilla) but there are some corn-bread muffins still left over. To make these, use Baking Illustrated’s Northern Cornbread recipe, but instead of the milk and buttermilk use 1 can of corn, complete with juices. Drain juices out of can into a bowl and add cornmeal to that bowl. Letting cornmeal (esp stone ground but even normal Quaker’s) soak before baking softens the sometimes grainy texture of the end product. Add corn kernels, now separated, to the dry ingredients, thoroughly mixing. As in any quick bread, coating fruit or vegetable additions with flour prevents those additions from sinking to the bottom during baking. Without a flour coating heavier ingredients will fall, potentially burning or sometimes simply making the end product uneven in its texture.

The tea party went well, with the normally over rushed undergrad crowd sitting down and chatting over some tea and goodies. We chose Assam tea for the day rather than the Darjeeling. I had extra cups but as there is a cold going around I was only willing to share with “non-sickies”. However everyone on the floor brought extra cups and one even volunteered an extra water heater when my one was running too slow (10 people to a tea pot is a little hard for any water heater).

As people came and went I was reminded of the story of The Stone Soup. This is the version I remember from when I was small:

Stone Soup (Aladdin Picture Books)

And here is a version you can read without buying it:

Stone Soup in post-war Eastern Europe

It was great fun. And now to continue reading the 9/11 report.

Inspirational Quote:

No good opera plot can be sensible:… people do not sing when they are feeling sensible. ~W.H. Auden, Time, 29 December 1961

TSA update

Hi,

Here are my notes from my most recent encounter with the TSA.

I flew on US Airways which contracts to PrimeFlight which part of G2 (I asked the woman—you will see why I cannot give me particular name—who checked my ID).

Flying out of SFO is never a particular treat but the trip made from home to a new college-home is sad in a way that has nothing to do with a bloated government security infrastructure. Approaching the second place where my ID is checked (my ticketer checked my ID when she gave me my boarding pass) I see the familiar maze of lines that characterizes SFO on most days. At approximately 10:45am on August 17 I approach the rightmost checker. I am carrying my laptop case (a thin affair only designed for a laptop, not one of those briefcase monstrosities of cowhide) my school backpack and a tote.

You may see the source of the problem already.

As I hand over my ID and boarding pass I ask if PrimeFlight (whose insignia I now recognize) is part of G2, remarking I offen get confused as to who is part of whom. My checker, a middle aged Asian-American woman confirms that PrimeFlight is part of G2. She is a bit surprised, but every ID checker I have ever asked that question of has been surprised so I didn’t worry. As I am about to walk through, having been handed back my ID and board pass she says

“Only two bags allowed carry-on.”

I stop. My tote is overfull. I knew I could shove my laptop bag into my tote, and she presumably had seen enough people do just that to know it too. I take scowl.

“Do you want me to put my laptop bag into my tote? It will fit but it will just take up time”. I had actually thought this through before entering the security area. Since getting my laptop out of an overloaded tote to put on the scanning belt would be a great deal of trouble I had figured it would be easier to not pack it in the first place.

“You see the sign?” (she points through a crowd of people to another post with a pealing notice from the TSA, presumably telling me I could only carry 2 articles of carry-on on board with me.) Deciding that pointing out the sign’s hidden location would be petty I said,

“Yes, but my laptop will fit in this bag.” I smile, trying to be ingratiating as I got irritated,

“You see the sign? Two items *only*” She has now come out from around her podium to glower at me.

“So you want me to unpack and repack my bag right here?” I asked. Ok, I was peeved and probably sounded it but I was hoping she would see the light of smooth traffic flow and let me through.

“Only two item per passenger.”

“Ok then.” So I proceed to sit down in the middle of her isle and start unpacking my entire bag. It was full to the brim with things I needed for college and I couldn’t just lay my laptop on top.

Then I have an idea.

“May I have your name please?” I ask her.

“What? Why?”

“My name is Jessica. What is your name?” She is standing over me and I peer at her dangling name-tag. “Os—” It looked Japanese but I was having trouble memorizing it.

At this point her hand flew to cover her badge, as she glanced down to make sure she was concealing her name fully.

“Why do you need to know?”

“I am just curious. May I have your name?”

“No.” She stared at me, with a look between a glare and wide-eyed panic. Shuffled behind her podium, now fully obscuring her name from my view.

“Why won’t you tell me your name?” By this time I was standing, because I just don’t like being stood over.

She stared straight ahead and completely ignored me. I sat back down to finish repacking my bag.

A PrimeFlight rep who was directing passengers to checkers says,

“Linda, you still open?”

She nods and another passenger walks up. Also carrying 3 bags. And again Linda repeated “Only two items per passenger”. And the other woman, a little older than me and much more over packed, sits down in the aisle next to me to unpack her bag. I starting talking with her as I refill my bag, saying she wouldn’t tell me her name and how silly it was to repack bags which obviously could fit within each other. I was mostly being polite since the other woman’s three bags were truly each packed to capacity and would probably inconvenience somebody on her trip. Linda continued to check Ids while we sat in her aisle repacking. Once I was done I got up and left.

And that was a big mistake.

As I went through security I casually complained to the TSA officer who was helping load my stuff into the X-Ray machine. I have found that being nice and chatty gets me more information and makes me feel better about the entire process. He nods, smiling and wowing at the oddness of her behavior. After having passed through the metal detector ( I was not poofed on this occasion) I asked the next man behind the conveyor belt if there was anyone I could talk to about her bahavior. I was not interested in complaining I said, but I just wanted to find out her name.

Now I probably sound like some kind of creep, harassing random strangers to give me their names. But part of me feels that if my personal information (state of origin; full name; ID number; address; sex; hair color; eye color; height; age; and that eternal global embarrassment, weight) is to be perused by someone not of my choosing who has control over when and how I get to college, and *who has no immediate government oversight* I should be able to get a name. My Name is Jessica; What is Your Name?

I end up talking to the TSA manager in that section. I explain the situation. He is courteous and repeats that I could only have two bags. I say I am not really seeking to complain, I just want to know her name. I ask who I could ask for her name. He says he has no idea and I should check with my airline as TSA had no oversight over the third party ID checkers. He also says TSA will be taking over ticket-checking in about a month.

And that it was her right to refuse to tell me her name.

I thought about that as I walked away. I know I have a right to not tell anyone my religion, to not tell anyone my political stance, but private employees in an ostensibly customer-service based industry having a right to not tell me their names? I am a great lover of anonymity, but something rings wrong for me when a “right” is used to hide from responsibility. What is it curmudgeons always say, “the right of free speech is not a right to be free from the consequences of your speech?” I am still not sure how I feel about someone who is being paid to interact with me having a “right” to refuse to identify themselves in any way.

As soon as I get to the United Airways desk I wait in line for the attendant. When he returns I ask who I can talk to about an employee of PrimeFlight. He says he has no idea. They are a separate company. I point out that United Airways contracts out to them. He counters that *everyone* in this terminal contracts out to them, a fact I knew. I ask if there is no number, no web address, no internal office I can go to to find out who was that woman? He says I should have asked her manager while I was there. I point out I was being serious encouraged to keep moving. He shrugs.

And so I am blogging about it.

Inspirational joke of the day:

A vulture boards an airplane, carrying two dead raccoons.

The stewardess looks at him and says, “I’m sorry, sir, only one carrion allowed per passenger.

My current repetoir

Right now I am singing mostly classical. But here is my works studied (if you are a young singer please check with your music teacher as s/he may have ideas as to what is good for your voice right now. If you are more advanced, feel free to experiment!):

Art songs
American lullaby by Gladys Rich (my audition piece!)
Heidenröslein by Franz Schubert
La mi Sola, Laureola by Fernando Obradors
Gretchen am Spinnrade by Franz Schubert

Arias & Ariettas
“Cancion de la Gitana Habilidosa” from Jose Castel’s La Gitanilla en el Coliseo
“Lyubasha’s Aria” from Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Tsar’s bride
La Lontananza by Gaetano Donizetti
Danza, Danza, fanciulla gentile by Francesco Durante
Se Florindo e fedele by Alessandro Scarlatti

Duets
“The duet of Chloe and Daphnis” from Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades
“Music says it simply” from Franz Lehrar’s The Merry Widow

Musical Theater
“Your Daddy’s Hands” from Stephen Flaherty’s Ragtime
“My strongest suit” from Elton John’s Aida
“They call the wind Maria” from Alan Jay Lerner’s Paint your Wagon
“Impossible” from Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella
“I enjoy being a girl” from Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Flower Drum Song
“Close every door to me” from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

Jazz
“Georgia on my mind” by Hoagy Carmichael

Traditional

English
“How can I keep from singing?” by Robert Lowry
“Yet we’ll go no more aromin’” (poem by Lord Byron)
“Blowing the Candles out”
“Barb’ry Allen”
“Mary Hamilton”
“Silver Dagger”
“Rake and Rambling”
“Careless love”
“House of the Rising Sun”
“Wagoner’s lad”
“Catch the Wind”
“I am a poor wayfaring stranger”
“Donna Donna”
“Long Black Veil”
“Johnny I Hardly Knew You”
“Angel Band”
“John Riley”

American
“Two Brothers”
“The night they drove old Dixie”
“Children of Darkness”
“Last night I had the strangest dream”
“City of New Orleans”
“The Star Spangled Banner”
“Prayer of Saint Francis” (Sarah McLachlan)
“The tale of Gil-galad” JRR Tolkien

With accompaniment
“In the Heat of the Summer” by Phil Oaks
“In the Hills of Shilo” by Shel Silverstein

Cool quote:

With my singing I can make
A refuge for my spirit’s sake.
- Sara Teasdale

3 very geeky things about CMU (and afternoon tea!)

So, CMU is a super geek school. Music geeks, Law geeks, public policy geeks, and oh, the other kind too. But one of the very fun things at CMU are teh geeky things you see around campus. Here are my current top 3 (pic tomorrow!)

1) the pacman eating the sign on the street which divides the dorms from the campus

2) the frat hous with a security system seemingly powered by a single potatoe

3) the itty-bitty tiny-weenie cars used in “buggy”

My music audition went well, more on that on Friday (when results are posted).

Cool quote:

“I have a dream”

CMU College Cheers

Today was convocation. The first official day of my life as a collegian. It was 90 degrees out with serious humidity. There were interesting speeches (including the 3rd speech I’ve heard where the central theme was “My heart is in the work”. I mean, I get it’s our motto, but could there be some coordination so it doesn’t get referenced by *everyone*?). Finally, the Freshman class was symbolically handed over by the President from his care to that of our college deans. As each college stood, they cheered. And then they Cheered. Here are their cheers in order of whose I remembered first.

College of Humanities and Social Sciences (H&SS):

*clap* *clap* *clapclapclap*

“We’re well rounded”

*clap* *clap* *clapclapclap*

“We’re well rounded”

*all wearing our phantom of the opera masks*

College of Fine Arts (CFA):

“CFA! CFA! We look good every day!”

“CFA! CFA! We look good every day!”

Tepper School of Business (TSB):

“TSB! TSB! Someday you will work for me!”

“TSB! TSB! Someday you will work for me!”

Mellon College of Science (MCS):

“MCS! We’re the Best!”

“MCS! We’re the Best”

“We know stuff that matters!”

Bachelor of Science and Arts (BSA):

“Two for one!”

“Two for one!”

*and great blowing of whistles*

Now you may be noticing a conspicuous absence. Well, Computer Science (CS) did not have a cheer. Was one of the most famous and pranking colleges at Carnegie Mellon ignored, will shame be cast down upon them forever more? No, because better than coming up with any old cheer, the boy and girls in CS got creative. As they stood up to be recognized “Sweet Dreams” by Eurythmics began to play and the entire college stood up and did the robot. Wearing sunglasses with individualized flashing blue LEDs. All uniquely configured by their wearers at a clandestine college bonding session last night.

Are we a geek school or what?

I loved it!

Inspirational Quotes:
“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” Eleanor Roosevelt

“I would rather be ashes than dust!

I would rather that my spark should burn out

in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot.

I would rather be a superb meteor,

every atom of me in magnificent glow,

than a sleepy and permanent planet.

The function of man is to live, not to exist.

I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them.

I shall use my time.”

Jack London

Happy Day!

To a certain brother I have, here is the first of 2 gifts. The first are a bunch of quotes I collected while at the EFF (Can you guess why I’m putting them here?). The second is more physcial and will be seen soon.

15 quotes on Free Speech
1. “The public interest is best served by the free exchange of ideas.” (Judge John Kane)
2. “To some of us, preserving the Net for free speech is more important than anything in the free world.” (Ron Newman, netizen)
3. “What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.” (Salman Rushdie)
4. “Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us.” (William Orville Douglas)
5. “Censorship of anything, at any time, in any place, on whatever pretense, has always been and always be the last resort of the boob and the bigot.” (Eugene Gladstone O’Neill)
6. “Censorship ends in logical completeness when nobody is allowed to read any books except the books that nobody reads.” (George Bernard Shaw)
7. “We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is afraid of its people.” (John Fitzgerald Kennedy)
8. “Free speech is intended to protect the controversial and even outrageous word; and not just comforting platitudes too mundane to need protection.” (Colin Powell)
9. “All these people talk so eloquently about getting back to good old-fashioned values. Well, as an old poop I can remember back to when we had those old-fashioned values, and I say let’s get back to the good old-fashioned First Amendment of the good old-fashioned Constitution of the United States — and to hell with the censors! Give me knowledge or give me death!” (Kurt Vonnegut, author)
10. “If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.” (Noam Chomsky)
11. “If the human body’s obscene, complain to the manufacturer, not me.” (Larry Flynt)
12. “Censorship is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever.” (Nadine Gordimer)
13. “Censorship is telling a man he can’t have a steak just because a baby can’t chew it.” (Mark Twain)
14. “[O]ne man’s vulgarity is another’s lyric” (John Marshall Harlan, Supreme Court justice, 1971)
15. “All of us can think of a book… that we hope none of our children or any other children have taken off the shelf. But if I have the right to remove that book from the shelf - that work I abhor - then you also have exactly the same right and so does everyone else. And then we have no books left on the shelf for any of us.” (Katherine Paterson, American author of childrens books)
16. “I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend with my life your right to say it.” (Evelyn Beatrice Hall, of Voltair’s attitude) ——- this was my senior quote!!!—–

15 quotes on Fair Use

1. “People confuse ‘fair use’ with ‘personal use.’ They are not the same. Fair use is a set of guidelines used by judges in a courtroom. Personal use is your activity on your computers at home,” (Ted Cohen)
2. “Fight piracy; don’t squash innovation,” (Joe Krauss)
3. “By definition, all fair use is unauthorized. The whole point of fair use is that it is unauthorized, but noninfringing use.” (http://www.eff.org/IP/Video/HDTV/20000907_eff_comments_hdtv.html)
4. “Fair use is important to innovators as well as consumers. It’s fair use that allowed the VCR to innovate on top of the television,” (Joe Krauss, head of DigitalConsumer.org)
5. “Media companies, under the guise of piracy, are asking congress to give them more control over fair use. Hollywood wants to control innovation.” (Joe Krauss)
6. “The copyright bargain: a balance between protection for the artist and rights for the consumer,” (Robin Gross)
7. “We’re on the path of creating monopoly business practices out of copyright law,” (Robin Gross)
8. “The marketers can compete with free; it just has to be better. Look at bottled water if you don’t believe me,” (Jonathan Potter, Digital Media Association)
9. “The record industry is still pissed off that other people are making money off their business, even if it promotes their products and increases their sales. I think they’re still mad about radio,” (Jonathan Potter)
10. “Fair use is always going to be a gray area, and it should be. We need to allow for things we can’t see yet,” (Robin Gross)
11. “Just let me use the technology I want at a fair price,” (Jonathan Potter)
12. “‘Fair use . . . what use is it?’ Or so ask the corporations, adding “After all, we can’t make money from people doing things under fair-use law . . . so whose bright idea was it anyway? And why can’t we get rid of it?” (http://www.deadjournal.com/users/clasher/23812.html)
13. “Preserving fair use necessarily means preserving an ability to make copies that the authors do not expressly permit.” (http://www.eff.org/IP/Video/HDTV/20000907_eff_comments_hdtv.html)
14. “For what it’s worth, here’s my rule-of-thumb for determining fair use quote of another weblogger’s post. Consistent with not misrepresenting what the original weblogger wrote in toto, I quote only enough to provide my following comments, critical or otherwise, their raison d’être or jumping-off place, and just enough to whet my readers’ appetite for the reading of the original weblogger’s entire post, which, except in those cases of my withholding for charitable or protective reasons the identity of the original weblogger, is always linked.” (http://www.soundsandfury.com/soundsandfury/2004/09/fair_use.html)
15. “The Fair Use Doctrine is one of the most important limitations on the exclusive rights of the copyright holder. It allows that copyright can be infringed because strict application of the law impedes the production and dissemination of works to the public.” (http://www.ala.org/ala/washoff/WOissues/copyrightb/copyrightarticle/whatfairuse.htm)

15 quotes on Innovation

1. “The more original a discovery, the more obvious it seems afterwards.” (Arthur Koestler) “What actually urges [the scientific investigator] on is not some brummagem idea of Service, but a boundless, almost pathological thirst to penetrate the unknown, to uncover the secret, to find out what has not been found out before. His prototype is not the liberator releasing slaves, the good Samaritan lifting up the fallen, but a dog sniffing tremendously at an infinite series of rat-holes.” (H L Mencken)
2. “All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.” (Galileo Galilei)
3. “For artists diving into a new technology, it is a triple short-cut to mastery: you get a free ride on the novelty of the medium; there are no previous masters to surpass; and after a few weeks, you are the master. Try that with the violin.” (Stewart Brand)
4. “What actually urges [the scientific investigator] on is not some brummagem idea of Service, but a boundless, almost pathological thirst to penetrate the unknown, to uncover the secret, to find out what has not been found out before. His prototype is not the liberator releasing slaves, the good Samaritan lifting up the fallen, but a dog sniffing tremendously at an infinite series of rat-holes.” (H L Mencken)
5. “You can be discouraged by failure, or you can learn from it. So go ahead and make mistakes, make all you can. Because, remember that’s where you’ll find success - on the far side of failure.” (Thomas J. Watson Sr)
6. “When you’re the first person whose beliefs are different from what everyone else believes, you’re basically saying, “I’m right, and everyone else is wrong.” That’s a very unpleasant position to be in. It’s at once exhilarating and at the same time an invitation to be attacked.” (Larry Ellison)
7. “You ought to be able to show that you can do it a great deal better than anyone else with the regular tools before you have a license to bring in your own improvements.” (Ernest Hemingway)
8. “A game in which you fly around in space and shoot up other space ships? That is the stupidest idea that I have ever heard.” (Atari manager)
9. “It’s fascinating as we continue to innovate and lead the way in both the application space and the database space. In the very beginning, people said you couldn’t make relational databases fast enough to be commercially viable. I thought we could, and we were the first to do it. But we took tremendous abuse until IBM said, “Oh yeah, this stuff is good.” (Larry Ellison)
10. “It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to management than the creation of a new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old institution and merely lukewarm defenders in those who gain by the new ones.” (Nicolo Machiavelli)
11. “Innovation has never come through bureaucracy and hierarchy. It’s always come from individuals.” (John Scully, Chairman, Apple Computers)
12. “Economists and historians alike realize that there is a deep difference between homo economicus and homo creativus. One makes the most of what nature permits him to have. The other rebels against nature’s dictates. Technological creativity, like all creativity, is an act of rebellion.” (Joel Mokyr)
13. “One doesn’t discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.” (Andre Gide)
14. “You have all the reason in the world to achieve your grandest dreams. Imagination plus innovation equals realization.” (Denis Waitley)
15. “The best leaders are apt to be found among those executives who have a strong component of unorthodoxy in their character. Instead of resisting innovation, they symbolize it.” (David Ogilvy)

15 quotes on Privacy
1. “The mania for giving the Government power to meddle with the private affairs of cities or citizens is likely to cause endless trouble, through the rivaly of schools and creeds that are anxious to obtain official recognition, and there is great danger that our people will lose our independence of thought and action which is the cause of much of our greatness, and sink into the helplessness of the Frenchman or German who expects his government to feed him when hungry, clothe him when naked, to prescribe when his child may be born and when he may die, and, in time, to regulate every act of humanity from the cradle to the tomb, including the manner in which he may seek future admission to paradise.” (Mark Twain)
2. “Privacy is the right to be alone—the most comprehensive of rights, and the right most valued by civilized man.” (Louis D. Brandeis)
3. “Let there be spaces in your togetherness.” (Gibran Kahlil)
4. “Why doesn’t everybody leave everybody else the hell alone? (Jimmy Durante)
5. “Modern Americans are so exposed, peered at, inquired about, and spied upon as to be increasingly without privacy–members of a naked society and denizens of a goldfish bowl.” (Edward V. Long)
6. “Privacy is not something that I’m merely entitled to, it’s an absolute prerequisite.” (Marlon Brando)
7. “Today, the degradation of the inner life is symbolized by the fact that the only place sacred from interruption is the private toilet.” (Lewis Mumford)
8. “Isn’t privacy about keeping taboos in their place? (Kate Millet)
9. “The privacy and dignity of our citizens [are] being whittled away by sometimes imperceptible steps. Taken individually, each step may be of little consequence. But when viewed as a whole, there begins to emerge a society quite unlike any we have seen — a society in which government may intrude into the secret regions of a [person’s] life.” (Justice William O. Douglas)
10. “I’ve always been very zealous about not invading other people’s private spaces.” (Peter Jennings)
11. “Who could deny that privacy is a jewel? It has always been the mark of privilege, the distinguishing feature of a truly urbane culture. Out of the cave, the tribal teepee, the pueblo, the community fortress, man emerged to build himself a house of his own with a shelter in it for himself and his diversions. Every age has seen it so. The poor might have to huddle together in cities for need’s sake, and the frontiersman cling to his neighbors for the sake of protection. But in each civilization, as it advanced, those who could afford it chose the luxury of a withdrawing-place.” (Phyllis Mcginley)
12. “Relying on the government to protect your privacy is like asking a peeping tom to install your window blinds.” (John Perry Barlow)
13. “Anonymous pamphlets, leaflets, brochures and even books have played an important role in the progress of mankind. Persecuted groups and sects from time to time throughout history have been able to criticize the oppressive practices and laws either anonymously or not at all… It is plain that anonymity has sometimes been assumed for the most constructive purposes.” (Justice Hugo L. Black)
14. “You use your money to buy privacy because during most of your life you aren’t allowed to be normal.” (Johnny Depp)
15. “Ways may someday be developed by which the government, without removing papers from secret drawers, can reproduce them in court, and by which it will be enabled to expose to a jury the most intimate occurrences of the home.” (Justice Louis D. Brandeis)

Enjoy!

Hunt Library

Today I visited the Hunt Library at CMU. I liked it very much. After years of reading about academic libraries, hearing stories from friends and family, I have discovered a beautiful place: the university sized library. Today I only checked out 3 books.

Good Poems and Good Poems for Hard Times both collected by Garrison Keillor (of Lake Woebegone fame). I own the 2nd book and wanted to reread some of my favorite poems from it. The first is his first collection of poetry. I bought “Good Poems for Hard Times” in the Minneapolis/St Paul airport when visiting colleges with my mom and fell in love with it. Beyond holding selections from everyone from Frost to Herman Melville (whose poem I really did not like) the book is itself a study in Midwestern ethics. There are some dissonances to the centered, smallish town sturdy ethos (”The Discovery of Sex” by Debora Spencer being one example). But that poem is the exception that makes the rule. Even when choosing a poem about revelation of newfound intimacy, Spencer’s two teenagers enjoying eachother’s company grow up in the poem and become adults with their own children. It is a mature and pleasant read, great fun for anyone who likes postage-stamp sized explanations of the world.

The third is The Autograph Collection of Favorite Songs of Famous Singers (Soprano). It has no marked date but I would guess old. The first famous singer is Blanche Marcheisi, who was an opera singer in the early 20 century, so I would guess the book itself if from the 1930s-50s. I checked it out for the simple reason that I want to see what other Sopranos liked to sing. This is probably begging trouble since I am sure my new teacher will have a very specific path he or she wants me to follow. But until I get a teacher I shall experiment (and maybe afterwards as well. We’ll see!).

My inspirational quote will be short:

People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading.
- Logan Pearsall Smith

Happy thoughts!

Brief cooking notes

Hey,

So, tonight for my dorm floor I made chocolate chip cookies. Well, I tried to. I started with the recipe (attached to this post) but having no salt or vanilla I compensated. I added 2 tsps of nutty coffee which had fabulous consequences. See, the recipe calls for “Instant Coffee” and I added regular because I don’t drink coffee and I didn’t think about what this could mean. So my cookies have not an aftertaste, but an after*feel*. Kinda cool :-D. Then I added an extra tbs (tbs = table spoon, *not* tub) of butter to make up for the lack of vanilla and because no recipe for cookies should have less than 3 tbs of butter in it. It’s just wrong. Then I didn’t let the melted chocolate chips cool, so when I added everything together the warm-hotish chocolate chips liquefied the still solidish ones. The persistent hanging dampness of the day didn’t help either. I was last rained on 4 hours ago, and my pants still feel damp. Go interesting and non-desert weather! Finally I added 1.5 cups more flour plus 1/2 tsp[ of baking powder and 1 tsp of baking soda to make up for the extra flour. This was too much for my new and wonderful cookie tray, so I treated it as a bar cookie and poured/scraped/scooped it into the cookie tray. I then decorated the top with walnut halves which I really liked.

The cost of all of these supplies (notwithstanding that of the wonderful and incredible and greatly useful utensils by fabulous parents sent with me): 46+ dollars.

Smiling after a day of walking and rain and being ordered around by nice but officious upper classmen? Priceless. And I haven’t even used the cornmeal or pumpkin spice yet :-D.

If there are any left in the common room tomorrow morning I will take a photo of them. Hope everyone had a fabulous day!

Inspirational song:

Oh my love
When you’re far away i miss you so
Oh my love
How it hurt my heart to see you go

Oh my love
Some of us they says are bound to die
Oh my love
How it hurts my heart to say goodbye

Darlin’ won’t you wait,
Won’t you wait, won’t you wait
For I must go far away
Darlin’ won’t you wait,
Won’t you wait, won’t you wait
‘till I come back home to stay

Should another love
Come along, come along
Simply say that you’re not free
Send her on her way,
On her way, on her way
Darlin’ won’t you wait for me Oh my love

When you’re far away i miss you so
Oh my love

How it hurt my heart to see you go

Oh my love

Some of us they says are bound to die
Oh my love

How it hurts my heart to say goodbye
(What I’m singing for the talent show. With a girl in my hall (sp?). It’s a round. Girl scouts sing it so it should be public domain. These lyrics are from my memory.)