October 2006 Archives
In the ceramic studio glaze room I have somehow managed to go from being assigned one shelf, to now using three shelves. I have always had the shelf I was assigned, but a few days ago I claimed another shelf that wasn't used (a top shelf) for my tall stuff and then today I find that someone who unloaded a bisque kiln has managed to expand me on to the unoccupied area of shelf space beside mine. In the studio itself I'm almost as bad, I have my two original shelves, and then I have claimed another one off to the side for holding all of my tall things. I am starting to feel really bad because of the amount of space I take up in the two rooms. Everyone is supposed to be on 3 shelves total (1 glaze + 2 green), and I have 6 (3 of each). I can't find a good way to reduce the amount of space that I am using, so I really don't know what to do about being a shelf hog.
This morning it was about 60 degrees, and lightly raining when I left home. I opted to wear a tshirt and jeans, no jacket, heavy coat or scarf. Apparently I am the only person who feels that dressing the way I did was warm enough for the day's weather. Everyone I saw entering campus today had on a coat, or at the very least, a sweater. Am I just totally hot or is everyone cold paranoid? I don't like feeling like an outcast because I don't freeze my balls off at 60 degrees.
Before in Barnard I had to watch for the lab rule Nazi, coming in and verifiying compliance with all posted rules.
This semester, meet the Barnard Lab Super Bitch. She stands about 4ft, 6 inches and is of Asian origin. Her mission in life? To make sure all systems are functioning and showing their login window, and doing it as fast as possible. The she-devil (or is it taz devil?) of the lab swoops in silently, runs down each row of systems, jiggles the mouse and presses the spacebar on every non-occupied system and then leaves just as quickly as she appeared, all without smiling, saying a word to anyone, or appearing to care at all. I would have to give her a 9.5 out of 10 on the borg scale.
The ceramic studio at UNCC is a shared environment of clay creativity, where everyone shares common tools, clay buckets, slurry return and kilns.
as i think of more, ill add to this entry of analogy
.. BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP... it is like a constant echolocation becon for the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. The new crosswalk technology at UNCC has been running for several weeks now. At first it seemed like the idea might actually catch on, you want to cross a road, so you press a little buttom to get a safe crossing signal, and traffic gets a red light, sounds like a good plan, right? It might work for crossing a busy state highway, or even a city street in uptown Charlotte, but how useful is it for a lightly traveled university road? During the first few weeks of school, people actually pushed the button, waited the amount of time (since the commanding voice behind the button demands "WAIT!"), and then crossed when told it was safe. Now, several weeks later, things have changed, it is very rare that anyone actually use the electronicly assisted crosswalks. It would appear that the students are rejecting this new technology and that we have gone back to the old way of doing things on campus, if a pedestrian is waiting to cross a road, vehicles stop and let them cross, if someone is already in a crosswalk, vehicles wait for them to finish crossing. Similarly, if vehicles are moving on a road, pedestrians tend to wait for the vehicle to pass before entering the crosswalk. It is all very simple and easy to work with, especially since there is a university-wide understanding of what is expected when it comes to pedestrian/vehicle and goose/vehicle interaction. Why use a beeping box of horror when humans already do it better?
