The Rich Rodriguez era did not start off well. For all the off-season hype about Rich Rod and his vaunted spread offense, when it came to game day the Wolverines did a massive face plant. Michigan fans knew this was coming. The exodus of players to graduation and the NFL draft after the 07-08 campaign would have made this season challenging for ANY coach. But to usher in a complete overhaul, most people knew that disaster would ensure despite their hopes that things might be deceptively better than projected.
Enter Utah. As we saw in 2004 with Urban Meyer calling the shots and Alex Smith (and his small hands) under center, Utah is not just a schlep of a mid-major. They're a solid team similar to App State last year (a team that was coming off of a Div 1A championship, a fact that got lost in the upset rhetoric). That said I'm not surprised that Michigan lost on Saturday. However, watching the game was very painful. Not just because my beloved Wolverines looked anemic on offense, but because of the commentators. I could rant and rave about my distaste for sports commentators for hours. The most annoying moment, to me, occurred during the first half when the commentators were slurping Michigan's offense, which had never really gotten off the ground, at the same time that the producers put up a graphic of both teams' total yardage. Utah had well over 100 yards total offense and Michigan had 35. If it weren't for penalties committed by the Utes, Michigan's 4th quarter comeback would have been for naught. It's foolish to think that Big Blue will get those kinds of breaks every week. Personally, I wanted to seem more Sam McGuffie. When he did get the ball he looked alright. Granted he's no Mike Hart, but he's not running behind the same offensive line either. I'm intrigued to see how he develops in Ann Arbor. But right now, we need a quarterback. Sheridan threw A LOT of near interceptions, and Threet was a bit better, but not a whole lot. I wouldn't be surprised if Threet starts next week though, based on his 4th quarter performance. Sheridan looked like he was trying to be Pat White out there instead of just managing the game. Before the season started Michigan fans knew that a QB would be at the top of the list for next year's recruiting crop. Frankly, I'm surprised Pryor DIDN'T come to UM. It's one thing to sign on to a program that's already winning, but it's another to be the spark, or the cornerstone, that brings a team back to their rightful place of prominence.
I do have to give props to Utah's offensive line. They protected their quarterback really well and allowed him to thread the needle with his passing. It's not a stretch for Utah to win the Mountain West title this year, assuming they stay healthy.
Hopefully next week, when we play a weak Miami, Ohio, team Big Blue will settle into their offense a bit more so they're ready for Notre Dame in week three. After the absolute domination we've had over ND the past few years, it would suck to let that get away now. In reality, we're still at least another year or two away from getting back to being a consistent top 5 or top 10 team. So long as that happens, these growing pains will be worth it. As for this year, I'll be happy with 7-5 or 8-4.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Friday, August 29, 2008
Why Lunchbox?
One of the most frequent questions I get when meeting new people is how I got the nickname, Lunchbox. Well it's not really that great of a story, but I might as well write it down for posterity.
When I was in middle school, and for most of high school, really, I was fat. It's safe to use the word heifer, I think. I probably wasn't 6' yet, and weighed over 2 bills, very little of which was muscle since I didn't work out. Despite my heft, I played lacrosse on my high school's club team. One of my lax buddies gave me the name my freshman year of high school. At the time he was obsessed with Kevin Smith's movie "Mallrats." I would assume most people are at least somewhat familiar with Kevin Smith's work, and know of the characters Jay and Silent Bob. Well, at one point in "Mallrats" Jay calls Silent Bob "lunchbox." One can presume this was the case because Silent Bob was a fat guy (there might be some sort of New Jersey idiom behind this, too. With Kevin Smith you never know). Since Silent Bob was a fat guy, and I was a fat kid my buddy, Brennan, decided that I too would be known as "Lunchbox." Suffice it to say the name stuck. By the time I got to college very few people knew my real name. I even had a little Indian professor for a computer class in undergrad that called me "Mr. Lunchbox." It was great. It got to the point where it was weird when I was addressed by my given name. (It's still a bit weird to me, actually). A lot of my friends still call me Lunchbox, or any of the variations picked up over the years (most commonly Box, but also, LB, and Lunch).
So that's the story. It wasn't because I carried a lunchbox to school (although I did afterward) or anything else. A unique nickname tended to ensure that people wouldn't forget who I was even if I forgot them.
When I was in middle school, and for most of high school, really, I was fat. It's safe to use the word heifer, I think. I probably wasn't 6' yet, and weighed over 2 bills, very little of which was muscle since I didn't work out. Despite my heft, I played lacrosse on my high school's club team. One of my lax buddies gave me the name my freshman year of high school. At the time he was obsessed with Kevin Smith's movie "Mallrats." I would assume most people are at least somewhat familiar with Kevin Smith's work, and know of the characters Jay and Silent Bob. Well, at one point in "Mallrats" Jay calls Silent Bob "lunchbox." One can presume this was the case because Silent Bob was a fat guy (there might be some sort of New Jersey idiom behind this, too. With Kevin Smith you never know). Since Silent Bob was a fat guy, and I was a fat kid my buddy, Brennan, decided that I too would be known as "Lunchbox." Suffice it to say the name stuck. By the time I got to college very few people knew my real name. I even had a little Indian professor for a computer class in undergrad that called me "Mr. Lunchbox." It was great. It got to the point where it was weird when I was addressed by my given name. (It's still a bit weird to me, actually). A lot of my friends still call me Lunchbox, or any of the variations picked up over the years (most commonly Box, but also, LB, and Lunch).
So that's the story. It wasn't because I carried a lunchbox to school (although I did afterward) or anything else. A unique nickname tended to ensure that people wouldn't forget who I was even if I forgot them.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Coping with life as a poor graduate student
As I made clear earlier this summer, the debacle with my credit card in Europe was a truly trying experience. Unfortunately, the worst effects of it are only now being felt. I can reasonably say that entering my 5th year of graduate study this is the first time I feel like I am on unstable ground financially. Yes, I won a research grant this summer and have a fellowship in the coming academic school year, but the former only helps to pay off the credit card debt I do have and the latter only really helps with cost of living expenses. There is little to help replenish my devastated savings. Perhaps I should have taken out a larger student loan this year, but it looks like its too late to adjust that. Honestly, I'd prefer to have a higher credit card bill that I know I can pay off over a longer period of time and be more stable, than to be able to pay off the bill quicker but face financial straights. The timing couldn't really be worse for all this, but there's not a whole lot to be done at this point except to ride it out.
On the research front, in addition to the database program I found, I also got a copy of MacSpeech Dictate. This is pretty much exactly what it sounds like, dictation software. It lets you speak to your computer and it will type out what you say. I figured since I have so much stuff to go through, a lot of which is in JPEG format and thus unable to be copied and pasted to a text document, this would be good and efficient alternative. The only real problem is that my iBook G4 runs a PowerPC processor and the program needs and Intel Mac. Luckily I can use Katie's MacBook while she's at work. Right now I'm just waiting for my microphhone headset to arrive and I'll be good to go. It will be good to start getting through this material so I can delete some of it from my iBook's hard drive. Sure I have it all backed up on an external hard drive and archived on DVDs, but I can't bring myself to delete the 20+ Gigs of photos from my hard drive yet, even though they're sucking up almost half of my hard drive space and contributing to slow performance (even worse than I was experiencing before, which were the result of putting Leopard on such an old machine). Add a new Mac laptop to my list of things I need but can't afford at the moment.
Throughout all of this I've tried to keep a "Candide" attitude telling myself that everything will work out. Let's hope that Voltaire's satire isn't just that in this case.
On the research front, in addition to the database program I found, I also got a copy of MacSpeech Dictate. This is pretty much exactly what it sounds like, dictation software. It lets you speak to your computer and it will type out what you say. I figured since I have so much stuff to go through, a lot of which is in JPEG format and thus unable to be copied and pasted to a text document, this would be good and efficient alternative. The only real problem is that my iBook G4 runs a PowerPC processor and the program needs and Intel Mac. Luckily I can use Katie's MacBook while she's at work. Right now I'm just waiting for my microphhone headset to arrive and I'll be good to go. It will be good to start getting through this material so I can delete some of it from my iBook's hard drive. Sure I have it all backed up on an external hard drive and archived on DVDs, but I can't bring myself to delete the 20+ Gigs of photos from my hard drive yet, even though they're sucking up almost half of my hard drive space and contributing to slow performance (even worse than I was experiencing before, which were the result of putting Leopard on such an old machine). Add a new Mac laptop to my list of things I need but can't afford at the moment.
Throughout all of this I've tried to keep a "Candide" attitude telling myself that everything will work out. Let's hope that Voltaire's satire isn't just that in this case.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Vetting the data
Well, now that I've returned to the good ole US of A and took a week off to get back into the swing of things, I'm turning my attention to going through all of the material I collected on my trip. I'm taking a page out of the research strategies of one of my professors at LUC, Dr. Lew Erenberg. He uses a database program to keep track of all his notes for his various projects. I figured it couldn't hurt to look into something similar. I found a program called Bento for my Mac that is pretty much everything I'd need. It allows be to create custom templates with whatever input fields I deem necessary. It allows you to create a Library and collections within that library as well. This is great because you can select the library and run a search and it will pull records from all of the collections. I wanted something with tagging, sort of like the labels function on blogspot. Since it wasn't possible to use hyperlinks within the program I just created a "Keywords" field. While it doesn't keep track of all the keywords throughout the library, it does so within each collection, which helps with consistency. So in essence, I've got a tag-like process going on. I've already been able to copy all of my typed notes into the program and I'm sure it will be useful when going through all the jpegs and pdfs I've accumulated. Just a make a record for each, put in a reference to the picture or file, and type in whatever notes on that document. Money.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Final Ratings
Accommodations:
Best: Queen's University Belfast - The continental breakfast really set this place apart. It was nice to have a stable internet connection and an en suite bathroom. The only drawback was the lack of crockery, which meant I wasted $20 on a pot and a pan for cooking. The location meant I did a lot of walking too, but the weather wasn't bad so it worked out fine.
Worst: King's College, London - Lacked an internet connection, phone, or any telecommunications whatsoever. The bathroom was an entity unto itself - and that's not a good thing.
The Rest:
University College, Dublin - Nothing fancy here. Had internet, but Skype wouldn't work on my Mac. Laundry was expensive. Had a Centra (think 7-11) in the complex. Great access to buses.
University College, Cork - Best bed of the trip, en suite bathroom, nicest kitchen of the trip. No in-room internet - 4 computers in common room (3 of which worked). Laundry really expensive.
University of Ulster, Magee - The most uncomfortable bed on the trip and the kitchen was kind of gross, but that was due to a couple of the guys living there being messy and not caring about the rest of us. Decent internet connection. (2) Great roommates.
Fish & Chips:
Leo Burdock's, Dublin - Best fish of the trip. Didn't get enough ketchup. Take-out only, a beer would have been great.
Jackie Lennox's, Cork - Best chips of the trip, make that curry chips.
Galway (can't remember the name of the restaurant) - stopped here passing through to Derry. Fish was too greasy and the chips weren't any thing special.
Bishop's, Belfast - Not bad. I would say standard - nothing to write home about. Perhaps if I had got some curry for the chips.
N/A - Derry & London.
Archives:
Best: The National Archive, Kew - based on what I've written already, this should be no surprise. Everything an archive should be.
Worst: The National Library, Ireland - a colleague at Loyola warned me about this place before I left and he was right. This place was such a pain to work at. Unfortunately, I'll have to go back, but at least I'll be better prepared.
Some of the rest:
University College, Dublin - A wonderfully run archive, prior to Kew, the one of the best I went to. They didn't have much that I could use, but that doesn't take mitigate the quality of the facility.
National Archive, Ireland - Not a bad place to work. Their digital camera policy is a bit inconvenient, but it could be worse.
Cork City and County Archive - Pretty much the same as UCD. A beautiful facility with great people, just not a whole lot I could use.
Boole Library, University College Cork - A very nice facility with a very friendly and accommodating head archivist. I enjoyed working here.
Harbour Museum, Derry - Some of the nicest folks along the way. They had one collection relevant to my work. Allowed digital photos, weren't over-bearing, helped with last minute request.
PRONI - A very nice facility, easy to use, lots of useful material. No digital photography, which is a shame. That would definitely boost them in my mind.
Belfast Central Library, Newspaper Library - Great collection, allowed photography, late hours.
Imperial War Museum, London - Nice facility, horrible online catalog, would love to do more work there.
National Army Museum, London - Very nice, new facility. Catalog not online, yet. Great materials, friendly staff. No photos allowed.
British Library - Great hours, one of the best collections in the world.
Best: Queen's University Belfast - The continental breakfast really set this place apart. It was nice to have a stable internet connection and an en suite bathroom. The only drawback was the lack of crockery, which meant I wasted $20 on a pot and a pan for cooking. The location meant I did a lot of walking too, but the weather wasn't bad so it worked out fine.
Worst: King's College, London - Lacked an internet connection, phone, or any telecommunications whatsoever. The bathroom was an entity unto itself - and that's not a good thing.
The Rest:
University College, Dublin - Nothing fancy here. Had internet, but Skype wouldn't work on my Mac. Laundry was expensive. Had a Centra (think 7-11) in the complex. Great access to buses.
University College, Cork - Best bed of the trip, en suite bathroom, nicest kitchen of the trip. No in-room internet - 4 computers in common room (3 of which worked). Laundry really expensive.
University of Ulster, Magee - The most uncomfortable bed on the trip and the kitchen was kind of gross, but that was due to a couple of the guys living there being messy and not caring about the rest of us. Decent internet connection. (2) Great roommates.
Fish & Chips:
Leo Burdock's, Dublin - Best fish of the trip. Didn't get enough ketchup. Take-out only, a beer would have been great.
Jackie Lennox's, Cork - Best chips of the trip, make that curry chips.
Galway (can't remember the name of the restaurant) - stopped here passing through to Derry. Fish was too greasy and the chips weren't any thing special.
Bishop's, Belfast - Not bad. I would say standard - nothing to write home about. Perhaps if I had got some curry for the chips.
N/A - Derry & London.
Archives:
Best: The National Archive, Kew - based on what I've written already, this should be no surprise. Everything an archive should be.
Worst: The National Library, Ireland - a colleague at Loyola warned me about this place before I left and he was right. This place was such a pain to work at. Unfortunately, I'll have to go back, but at least I'll be better prepared.
Some of the rest:
University College, Dublin - A wonderfully run archive, prior to Kew, the one of the best I went to. They didn't have much that I could use, but that doesn't take mitigate the quality of the facility.
National Archive, Ireland - Not a bad place to work. Their digital camera policy is a bit inconvenient, but it could be worse.
Cork City and County Archive - Pretty much the same as UCD. A beautiful facility with great people, just not a whole lot I could use.
Boole Library, University College Cork - A very nice facility with a very friendly and accommodating head archivist. I enjoyed working here.
Harbour Museum, Derry - Some of the nicest folks along the way. They had one collection relevant to my work. Allowed digital photos, weren't over-bearing, helped with last minute request.
PRONI - A very nice facility, easy to use, lots of useful material. No digital photography, which is a shame. That would definitely boost them in my mind.
Belfast Central Library, Newspaper Library - Great collection, allowed photography, late hours.
Imperial War Museum, London - Nice facility, horrible online catalog, would love to do more work there.
National Army Museum, London - Very nice, new facility. Catalog not online, yet. Great materials, friendly staff. No photos allowed.
British Library - Great hours, one of the best collections in the world.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Coming to America
Well, I'm finally back home. The last week in London was really exhaustive, but, at the same time, I got a lot of work done. I spent a few hours on Sunday tooling around London, but nothing really to write home about. Monday was a long day, what with two flights, one of them being transatlantic. Nevertheless, I got home safely. As the plane was touching down at O'Hare the one thing that kept going through my mind was Neil Diamond's "Coming To America." That made me laugh.
So now that the initial research trip is done it's on to the next stage of the dissertation - going through all that material and starting to figure out how to put the thing together. We'll see how much stuff I have to write about here as the process unfolds.
All for now.
So now that the initial research trip is done it's on to the next stage of the dissertation - going through all that material and starting to figure out how to put the thing together. We'll see how much stuff I have to write about here as the process unfolds.
All for now.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
More thoughts on London, it's archives, and Tube
The pace of research in London is very fast. It's a nice change of pace from Dublin which is the equivalent to swimming in a tar pit. The days at the archives are just flying by.
Tuesday I went to the National Archive, Kew. This place is everything an archive should be. The staff is really friendly and helpful, everything is automated, yet there still a significant degree of autonomy for the researcher. One doesn't feel like they're being a burden or sized up on a regular basis. Everything there is easy to use, or at least what I needed was. I was also able to use my digital camera, yet another boon. I'll be going back there on Friday as I put in a bulk order of documents.
Wednesday I spent at the British Library. They have SO much material there and I was able to view some of the books that I wasn't able to see at the National Library of Ireland. I'm glad I did because I found some really good stuff in those books. The system there isn't as fluid as the one at Kew, but, still, I didn't have too much trouble. The nice thing is that you can schedule what day you want documents delivered, so there are a few I ordered up for Saturday (and perhaps I'll order up a few more this evening). I didn't get out of the BL yesterday until about 7:45pm. Needless to say it was a long day, but it was also a productive one.
Today, I spent at the National Army Museum. When I initially contacted them via email they sent me a list of files that they held. Ok, cool. Once I got here they had their collection accessible via an online database (run on Macs no less!), which was nice. One of the staff told me it'd be available on the internet later this year. So I looked through their holdings and found some other stuff relevant to my research. London keeps coming up aces in terms of finding materials. So I spent the day looking through this material and taking notes. In fact, I was typing as fast as I could by the end of the day trying to get one last document typed out before they closed. I was the last one to leave, but I managed to get everything I needed, at least for the time being. All in all, it was a very successful trip to a very nice little archive.
The one thing that is clear to me is that I will have to come back to London, perhaps a couple of times, in order to get through all the stuff here. The one thing that I wasn't able to figure out for this trip was anything at the Royal British Legion Headquarters. So I'll have to see about that on a subsequent trip. (After my experience in Belfast, I really need to look into the Dublin Branch as well. They may have what I'm looking for and not even realize it.) But I will say that spending so much time at these various repositories has made my time in London go by quickly, which I appreciate, especially since I'm toward the end of the trip, pretty burned out, and not smitten by my accommodations. I have, however, been able to achieve the level of productivity I've strived for all along in London, which was not always the case in other places.
Although I may find the Tube's cash fares expensive, it's easy to see where the money goes. What a great system. The trains are on time and there are displays telling you how long until the next train arrives (like the DC Metro). The cars are clean, as are the stations, and while they may be labyrinthine, everything is clearly marked and it's easy to figure out where to go. The train cars are pretty quite for a subway. Usually, there are a few windows open in each car for ventilation, and even then it's possible to listen to music without having to decimate your eardrums or to have a conversation without having to yell. It's not quite like the Montreal Metro, which has rubber wheels and is really quiet, but when compared to the CTA subway there is a huge difference. It's nice to have an automated voice over the speaker that tells you what station you're approaching/at, and what is next. On the CTA the only time one seems to get this type of information is when the driver feels like telling the passengers. Sure they have certain announcements about keeping the CTA clean and the like, but nothing like the Tube. CTA buses have this feature, but it doesn't work on every bus. I haven't ridden the buses in London, but I certainly did in Ireland, and it's safe to say that based on my experience there and what I've seen of the buses in London, they're well maintained and clean, again, unlike the CTA. This just hammers home how absolutely terrible public transportation is in Chicago. People piss and moan about a $0.25 fare increase, but having seen other, better systems it's worth it for a higher fare. Besides, on the Tube a cash fare is £4, but if you have an Oyster Card (the same thing as the Chicago Card (Plus)) then it's only £1.50, and on top of that there is a daily cap so you won't be charged anything above the cap if you have the card (assuming I'm reading the literature correctly). But a difference between £1.50 and £4 is huge. Perhaps that's the sort of price structure we need in Chicago to really initiate change. The smart cards are so much more cost effective for the transit system there needs to be a much stronger incentive for people to use them. It's kind of like in Ireland how they charge you for plastic bags at the grocery store. Every one there has reusable shopping bags. After the initial adjustment period most people will probably just go with the flow, and be more content with their service.
Tuesday I went to the National Archive, Kew. This place is everything an archive should be. The staff is really friendly and helpful, everything is automated, yet there still a significant degree of autonomy for the researcher. One doesn't feel like they're being a burden or sized up on a regular basis. Everything there is easy to use, or at least what I needed was. I was also able to use my digital camera, yet another boon. I'll be going back there on Friday as I put in a bulk order of documents.
Wednesday I spent at the British Library. They have SO much material there and I was able to view some of the books that I wasn't able to see at the National Library of Ireland. I'm glad I did because I found some really good stuff in those books. The system there isn't as fluid as the one at Kew, but, still, I didn't have too much trouble. The nice thing is that you can schedule what day you want documents delivered, so there are a few I ordered up for Saturday (and perhaps I'll order up a few more this evening). I didn't get out of the BL yesterday until about 7:45pm. Needless to say it was a long day, but it was also a productive one.
Today, I spent at the National Army Museum. When I initially contacted them via email they sent me a list of files that they held. Ok, cool. Once I got here they had their collection accessible via an online database (run on Macs no less!), which was nice. One of the staff told me it'd be available on the internet later this year. So I looked through their holdings and found some other stuff relevant to my research. London keeps coming up aces in terms of finding materials. So I spent the day looking through this material and taking notes. In fact, I was typing as fast as I could by the end of the day trying to get one last document typed out before they closed. I was the last one to leave, but I managed to get everything I needed, at least for the time being. All in all, it was a very successful trip to a very nice little archive.
The one thing that is clear to me is that I will have to come back to London, perhaps a couple of times, in order to get through all the stuff here. The one thing that I wasn't able to figure out for this trip was anything at the Royal British Legion Headquarters. So I'll have to see about that on a subsequent trip. (After my experience in Belfast, I really need to look into the Dublin Branch as well. They may have what I'm looking for and not even realize it.) But I will say that spending so much time at these various repositories has made my time in London go by quickly, which I appreciate, especially since I'm toward the end of the trip, pretty burned out, and not smitten by my accommodations. I have, however, been able to achieve the level of productivity I've strived for all along in London, which was not always the case in other places.
Although I may find the Tube's cash fares expensive, it's easy to see where the money goes. What a great system. The trains are on time and there are displays telling you how long until the next train arrives (like the DC Metro). The cars are clean, as are the stations, and while they may be labyrinthine, everything is clearly marked and it's easy to figure out where to go. The train cars are pretty quite for a subway. Usually, there are a few windows open in each car for ventilation, and even then it's possible to listen to music without having to decimate your eardrums or to have a conversation without having to yell. It's not quite like the Montreal Metro, which has rubber wheels and is really quiet, but when compared to the CTA subway there is a huge difference. It's nice to have an automated voice over the speaker that tells you what station you're approaching/at, and what is next. On the CTA the only time one seems to get this type of information is when the driver feels like telling the passengers. Sure they have certain announcements about keeping the CTA clean and the like, but nothing like the Tube. CTA buses have this feature, but it doesn't work on every bus. I haven't ridden the buses in London, but I certainly did in Ireland, and it's safe to say that based on my experience there and what I've seen of the buses in London, they're well maintained and clean, again, unlike the CTA. This just hammers home how absolutely terrible public transportation is in Chicago. People piss and moan about a $0.25 fare increase, but having seen other, better systems it's worth it for a higher fare. Besides, on the Tube a cash fare is £4, but if you have an Oyster Card (the same thing as the Chicago Card (Plus)) then it's only £1.50, and on top of that there is a daily cap so you won't be charged anything above the cap if you have the card (assuming I'm reading the literature correctly). But a difference between £1.50 and £4 is huge. Perhaps that's the sort of price structure we need in Chicago to really initiate change. The smart cards are so much more cost effective for the transit system there needs to be a much stronger incentive for people to use them. It's kind of like in Ireland how they charge you for plastic bags at the grocery store. Every one there has reusable shopping bags. After the initial adjustment period most people will probably just go with the flow, and be more content with their service.
Monday, August 4, 2008
London town
You get a shiver in the park/it's raining in the park, but mean time....
It'd be nice if the Sultans could Swing me a better lot in London. It should be clear that for me telecommunications is the central factor determining the quality of my accommodations. In this respect, London is the worst place so far. Oh, there are internet ports in the rooms, but one must have a King's College login to access them. No guest access here like at Queen's. There are no phones in the apartment and no common room with computers for people to use. That puts London just below Cork on the telecommunications scale. Frankly, I'm disappointed. For a place that caters to international travelers--in LONDON of all places--you would think they'd have some sort of solution to the telecommunications question. There is a bar directly across the street that has "free" wifi (with purchase of course), but that's hardly acceptable in my book. Nevertheless, it's something I'll have to deal with. Let's just say I'm glad I'm only here for a week. I couldn't afford to be here longer!
The room itself isn't too bad. There's a mini fridge, two pillows, and the sheets are really comfortable. The bathroom, however, is one of the most "European" things I have encountered thus far. I will upload a photo later, but it's basically a triangle with one corner being the "shower," with a bar bisecting the triangle that holds the curtain rod. When the shower curtain is closed, the toilet is inside the shower. I shit you not (excuse the pun). Now I was a part-time custodian for about 3 years in undergrad and I am by no means a germophobe, but I do not like grimy things. This bathroom scares me. Needless to say, another reason I'm glad I'm only here for a week.
On the research front, today was very productive. I spent the day at the Imperial War Museum, which is one of the coolest museums in London (again, another one I think the Colonel would thoroughly enjoy). When I got to the reading room they had the files I had requested waiting for me at an assigned seat. The chairs were comfy and the room was big and bright. Really, it was ideal for doing research. The only drawback was that of the probably 30 seats available they crammed everyone right next to each other so there wasn't much room to work. That kind of sucked, but otherwise, I enjoyed it. I must say that most of the research facilities here have been great, with the obvious exception of the National Library of Ireland. Tomorrow's plan is to go out to the National Archive at Kew. I know that I can use the old digital camera there so hopefully I'll only need the one day there. We'll see. It looks like it's probably a 45 min Tube ride in the morning. If you think that public transportation in Chicago is expensive where a cash fare for a single ride is $2, try London where the same goes for £4 ($8). Yet another reason I'm glad I'll only be here for a week.
Finally, a totally unrelated thing, but one I think worthwhile - a format change for this here blog. I've decided that an "Album" of the week isn't really cutting mustard any more. Sometimes I find myself picking an album because of a particular song on it. Since the music industry seems to be going retro to the 50s and 60s where singles ruled, I'm changing the Album of the Week to This Week's Music, which may include a single song, an entire album, or a live concert. Since, personally, I prefer live music, I'll provide links whenever possible to live music. Singles and records, I assume people (and I use this term loosely since there are 4 people reading this) can do a Google or iTunes search for a song or album.
It'd be nice if the Sultans could Swing me a better lot in London. It should be clear that for me telecommunications is the central factor determining the quality of my accommodations. In this respect, London is the worst place so far. Oh, there are internet ports in the rooms, but one must have a King's College login to access them. No guest access here like at Queen's. There are no phones in the apartment and no common room with computers for people to use. That puts London just below Cork on the telecommunications scale. Frankly, I'm disappointed. For a place that caters to international travelers--in LONDON of all places--you would think they'd have some sort of solution to the telecommunications question. There is a bar directly across the street that has "free" wifi (with purchase of course), but that's hardly acceptable in my book. Nevertheless, it's something I'll have to deal with. Let's just say I'm glad I'm only here for a week. I couldn't afford to be here longer!
The room itself isn't too bad. There's a mini fridge, two pillows, and the sheets are really comfortable. The bathroom, however, is one of the most "European" things I have encountered thus far. I will upload a photo later, but it's basically a triangle with one corner being the "shower," with a bar bisecting the triangle that holds the curtain rod. When the shower curtain is closed, the toilet is inside the shower. I shit you not (excuse the pun). Now I was a part-time custodian for about 3 years in undergrad and I am by no means a germophobe, but I do not like grimy things. This bathroom scares me. Needless to say, another reason I'm glad I'm only here for a week.
On the research front, today was very productive. I spent the day at the Imperial War Museum, which is one of the coolest museums in London (again, another one I think the Colonel would thoroughly enjoy). When I got to the reading room they had the files I had requested waiting for me at an assigned seat. The chairs were comfy and the room was big and bright. Really, it was ideal for doing research. The only drawback was that of the probably 30 seats available they crammed everyone right next to each other so there wasn't much room to work. That kind of sucked, but otherwise, I enjoyed it. I must say that most of the research facilities here have been great, with the obvious exception of the National Library of Ireland. Tomorrow's plan is to go out to the National Archive at Kew. I know that I can use the old digital camera there so hopefully I'll only need the one day there. We'll see. It looks like it's probably a 45 min Tube ride in the morning. If you think that public transportation in Chicago is expensive where a cash fare for a single ride is $2, try London where the same goes for £4 ($8). Yet another reason I'm glad I'll only be here for a week.
Finally, a totally unrelated thing, but one I think worthwhile - a format change for this here blog. I've decided that an "Album" of the week isn't really cutting mustard any more. Sometimes I find myself picking an album because of a particular song on it. Since the music industry seems to be going retro to the 50s and 60s where singles ruled, I'm changing the Album of the Week to This Week's Music, which may include a single song, an entire album, or a live concert. Since, personally, I prefer live music, I'll provide links whenever possible to live music. Singles and records, I assume people (and I use this term loosely since there are 4 people reading this) can do a Google or iTunes search for a song or album.
Belfast in Pictures
As promised here are some pictures from Belfast (click on images for bigger pictures). Better late than never:
A couple of Pints Rich and I got from the Crown Bar.
The Europa hotel at one time held the distinction for being the most bombed hotel in Europe. Perhaps it still does, as I'm fuzzy on the details. The main bus and train stations are located there as well.
One of many murals in the Shankill Road area (i.e. Protestant).
Another Shankill Road mural.
And one more Shankill Road mural for good measure.
This is the main cenotaph at the Remembrance Gardens at Belfast City Hall. It's really a nice memorial, me thinks.
This is the Great War Memorial at Queen's University Belfast. It is located in front of the main university building and is literally the first thing you see when you walk through the main gates onto campus.
I just liked the look of this Celtic Cross. However, behind it you can see a list of names. This is one of the memorials in the Falls Road (i.e. Catholic) area. The names belong to people from the neighborhood (actually the surrounding streets) who have died in the Troubles.
This is a look at the grave sites of the Hunger Strikers and other Republican martyrs in Milltown Cemetery. Toward the back you can see a tricolor flying and a massive black tablet. On that is inscribed the text of the 1916 Proclamation. My camera battery died as I took a picture of it, sadly.
The grave of Bobby Sands. Frankly, I expected something more.
A couple of Pints Rich and I got from the Crown Bar.
The Europa hotel at one time held the distinction for being the most bombed hotel in Europe. Perhaps it still does, as I'm fuzzy on the details. The main bus and train stations are located there as well.
One of many murals in the Shankill Road area (i.e. Protestant).
Another Shankill Road mural.
And one more Shankill Road mural for good measure.
This is the main cenotaph at the Remembrance Gardens at Belfast City Hall. It's really a nice memorial, me thinks.
This is the Great War Memorial at Queen's University Belfast. It is located in front of the main university building and is literally the first thing you see when you walk through the main gates onto campus.
I just liked the look of this Celtic Cross. However, behind it you can see a list of names. This is one of the memorials in the Falls Road (i.e. Catholic) area. The names belong to people from the neighborhood (actually the surrounding streets) who have died in the Troubles.
This is a look at the grave sites of the Hunger Strikers and other Republican martyrs in Milltown Cemetery. Toward the back you can see a tricolor flying and a massive black tablet. On that is inscribed the text of the 1916 Proclamation. My camera battery died as I took a picture of it, sadly.
The grave of Bobby Sands. Frankly, I expected something more.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Exiting Belfast stage left
Wow, where did the week go. It's amazing how quickly time flies when you have lots of work to do. Well my journal of this dissertation research trip is quickly coming to its conclusion and I'll have to move on to other dissertation and life related things to write about. I've got next week in London before going home. But first a recap of this week's activities.
As I already mentioned, I spent Monday at the Royal British Legion in Belfast. Both Tuesday and Wednesday I spent long days at the Belfast Central Library. Since a lot of what I'm doing looks like it is going to rely pretty heavily on newspapers. The Belfast Central Newspaper Library was the best place to work with newspapers thus far. The main advantage of the BCL is that they have no problem bringing out bound volumes of newspapers. Most places tend to rely heavily on microfilm. That's not to say the BCL doesn't have it's share of microfilm, but for the major Belfast area newspapers, which I was most interested in, were all available in hard copy. So what's the big deal you might ask? My digital camera can take pictures of a microfilm machine screen and produce useable images. They are not the best, but they are certainly usable. A lot, of course, depends on the quality of the film itself. With the hard copies you don't have to worry about the quality of the film. Most of the papers I looked at were in good condition and I got really good quality pictures from them.
On Thursday, I took the train to Bangor followed by a bus toward Newtownards to the Somme Heritage Centre. I spent the day there going through some of the sources they had there. Noel Cain and the other people at the Somme Centre were very friendly and accommodating. The centre was really cool. It was the type of place I would love go with my Dad because I know he'd really like it (Dad, since I know you're reading, you have your charge: Going to Northern Ireland with me). Oh, and I managed to leave my umbrella either at the train station in Belfast or on the Bangor train. Note: this is NOT a good thing in Ireland. As Murphy's Law would have it, when I left the Somme Centre it was raining pretty hard and I got drenched.
Friday, I went back to the BCL and finished up another run of papers. When I was in the Republic they had a number of newspapers digitized and completely searchable, which made the process of finding relevant information a lot easier. In the North, however, there are no papers that are completely digitized so I had to go through microfilm and hard copies. Since memory/commemoration of the First World War in Ireland most prominently coincides with Remembrance Day my strategy for attacking papers in microfilm and hard copy consisted of this: I would select a paper - this week it was the Belfast Newsletter, the Belfast Telegraph, the Northern Whig, and the Irish News, Belfast. I would request the papers from the month of November from 1919-1939. I would have liked to go further into the future but Belfast had three good papers (the Irish News, Belfast started strong and faded fast) and I wanted to get through all of them. Plus, after 1939, the commemoration of WWI veterans changes because of WWII so the 1919-1939 period is the principal concern.
So it was a very productive week in terms of research. Or at least I hope so. The other issue that developed was with so many pictures I'm starting to run out of hard drive space on my computer. I was at Tesco the other night and bought some blank DVDs. I've backed up all of the photos I've taken on DVD. Probably not a bad idea. Given what happened with my PRONI notes, I'd prefer to err on the side of caution.
So that's the update for now. I leave Belfast tomorrow for London and after a week I FINALLY go home. I understand why people need to spend 6-12 months engaged in research based on my experiences here. But I don't know how people can spend so much time away from home. I guess most people have some sort of funding, and when the dollar was strong it would be a bit easier. Yet, it remains a difficult thing to manage. So as worthwhile as the trip has been I am certainly ready to go home.
All for now.
As I already mentioned, I spent Monday at the Royal British Legion in Belfast. Both Tuesday and Wednesday I spent long days at the Belfast Central Library. Since a lot of what I'm doing looks like it is going to rely pretty heavily on newspapers. The Belfast Central Newspaper Library was the best place to work with newspapers thus far. The main advantage of the BCL is that they have no problem bringing out bound volumes of newspapers. Most places tend to rely heavily on microfilm. That's not to say the BCL doesn't have it's share of microfilm, but for the major Belfast area newspapers, which I was most interested in, were all available in hard copy. So what's the big deal you might ask? My digital camera can take pictures of a microfilm machine screen and produce useable images. They are not the best, but they are certainly usable. A lot, of course, depends on the quality of the film itself. With the hard copies you don't have to worry about the quality of the film. Most of the papers I looked at were in good condition and I got really good quality pictures from them.
On Thursday, I took the train to Bangor followed by a bus toward Newtownards to the Somme Heritage Centre. I spent the day there going through some of the sources they had there. Noel Cain and the other people at the Somme Centre were very friendly and accommodating. The centre was really cool. It was the type of place I would love go with my Dad because I know he'd really like it (Dad, since I know you're reading, you have your charge: Going to Northern Ireland with me). Oh, and I managed to leave my umbrella either at the train station in Belfast or on the Bangor train. Note: this is NOT a good thing in Ireland. As Murphy's Law would have it, when I left the Somme Centre it was raining pretty hard and I got drenched.
Friday, I went back to the BCL and finished up another run of papers. When I was in the Republic they had a number of newspapers digitized and completely searchable, which made the process of finding relevant information a lot easier. In the North, however, there are no papers that are completely digitized so I had to go through microfilm and hard copies. Since memory/commemoration of the First World War in Ireland most prominently coincides with Remembrance Day my strategy for attacking papers in microfilm and hard copy consisted of this: I would select a paper - this week it was the Belfast Newsletter, the Belfast Telegraph, the Northern Whig, and the Irish News, Belfast. I would request the papers from the month of November from 1919-1939. I would have liked to go further into the future but Belfast had three good papers (the Irish News, Belfast started strong and faded fast) and I wanted to get through all of them. Plus, after 1939, the commemoration of WWI veterans changes because of WWII so the 1919-1939 period is the principal concern.
So it was a very productive week in terms of research. Or at least I hope so. The other issue that developed was with so many pictures I'm starting to run out of hard drive space on my computer. I was at Tesco the other night and bought some blank DVDs. I've backed up all of the photos I've taken on DVD. Probably not a bad idea. Given what happened with my PRONI notes, I'd prefer to err on the side of caution.
So that's the update for now. I leave Belfast tomorrow for London and after a week I FINALLY go home. I understand why people need to spend 6-12 months engaged in research based on my experiences here. But I don't know how people can spend so much time away from home. I guess most people have some sort of funding, and when the dollar was strong it would be a bit easier. Yet, it remains a difficult thing to manage. So as worthwhile as the trip has been I am certainly ready to go home.
All for now.
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