More like a 'washer/destroyer'

One of the comforts of home I miss most is a decent washer and dryer. Washers in particular have been foul things, made dirty by careless users and destructive by improper maintenance. Our washer/dryer is no exception. Over the last couple weeks, it's stained all my pants and a number of my shirts with yellow and navy blotches and eaten away at the side of one shirt. I can't fathom how it's managed to do that, but I'm sincerely looking forward to a time in my life when I can wear my favorite clothes without fearing for demise upon washing.

DIR a:\british_library\ /s /b | FIND "relevant information"

I've just returned from the British Library, which has an amazing collection, accessible to the general public free of charge. For obvious reasons, this service comes with heavy restrictions. Card application is like a trip to the DMV, requiring multiple proofs of ID and a lengthy wait for service. Items may be brought into reading rooms only in clear plastic bags. Water, pens, and cameras are prohibited. Books may not be removed from the library. And essentially all stacks are closed. This last restriction is the one that crippled my efforts for the day. I found the online catalog to be rather crude, and without being able to browse shelves, I was rather hapless in finding sources.

It really felt like trying to work in DOS without any proper experience. Most libraries are at least partially GUIs, navigable to some extent with the eye alone. The British Library is 100% command line interface. CLIs are efficient and often preferred by those who know what they're doing, but its a suffocating experience for those who don't.

Power out

I poured my cereal and opened the refrigerator to find the power off. I didn't open it after grabbing a yogurt yesterday morning, but somehow the breaker built into the outlet was tripped since then. Everything in the freezer seems okay, but the refrigerated goods are only a few degrees cooler than room temperature. I'm looking forward to moving out of this place.

Orange closer to yellow than Cardinal

Two years at the University of Wisconsin – Madison have spoiled me. The campus has not one, but two major student newspapers of reasonably high quality. I was always a fan of The Daily Cardinal, but my preference stemmed primarily from the presence of the fabulously funny comic "Everyone Drunk But Me" by Laura Beth Brandt and the slightly smaller size of the paper. Both it and its major competitor, The Badger Herald had a good selection of news, sports, and human interest stories. (Though not a constant reader I liked the Herald enough to apply for a position on its staff.)

Syracuse University isn't nearly so fortunate. Only one major student paper can be found here, and I suspect this lack of competition is a contributing factor to the overall trashiness of The Daily Orange. The articles are often little more than thinly veiled complaints, the comics are only funny if you are stuck by their randomness, and the sports section is monstrously overgrown (although I realize that this is probably not a bad thing given the readership). As for "human interest" stories - well let's say they take that a little too literally. You can see what I mean in this bit from yesterday's piece "Strap Tease" by Erin Hendricks and Katie Walsh:

Bra Unhooking 101:
- Check to make sure she's actually wearing a bra
- Ease her shirt off
- Feel her up to check on the clasp location

If it's on the back:
- Keep making out while moving your hand to the middle of the back of her bra
- Put your thumb on one side of the clasp, and your fingers on the other
- Pull together, and the bra will unhook easily

If it's on the front:
- Keep making out and move your hand to the front of her bra
- Squeeze the clasp together with your thumb and forefinger
- Twist clasp and lift up on the hook
- The bra will open and leave you with an eyeful of breasts

[...]

What the experts say...
"Whenever I'm drunk and can't speak, let alone get a bra off, I just push it up over the prize."
- Matt Smith, sophomore computer engineering major

"One time I was hanging out with a lady, kind of drunk, and I was looking around for a solid 30-40 seconds for a clasp before I realized it was a sports bra."
- Mike McQueeny, sophomore political science major

"If you're fooling around with a girl who's wearing a black bra and took her own shirt off, take the bra off one-handed. But if you're with a girl who's wearing a white bra and you have to do it all, go with two hands - it'll make you seem like you don't have as much sex."
- Ryan Donnelly, sophomore accounting major

I wish I could say this was anomalous.

Live from the Centro

It's thirteen past one in the morning, and I'm sitting on bus 9950, traveling route 344 from College Place to Slocum Heights via Euclid and Westcott. There are eighteen passengers in addition to myself, and two of them are unbelievably drunk. Both are girls, and I'd wager freshmen (or maybe lightweight sophomores), and they are two of the loudest people I've ever encountered. They've been "singing" (shouting) the whole ride; I recognized "Maria" from Santana's album Supernatural but none of the others. "Jake," who's also had a few drinks but is handling his liquor far better asked them to be quiet, and now they're quite upset with him. One of them is taking a rather aggressive approach, accusing him of being a square, being sexually frustrated, being a closet homosexual (in far less polite terms). The other is trying to get him involved in "the fun," trying to show him how his own evening activities should make him as easygoing as them. Jake's keeping his cool.

The girls got off four stops too early. They had intended to ride to my stop. I'm not complaining.