Spring time news

So, I'm emerging from my lonely general exam cocoon, here's some news:

School

• I passed! Woo hoo, this means I'm now a Phd candidate instead of student. My committee was super fabulous and I ended up learning a great deal (go figure). Now...onto the dissertation!
  
• No rest though, lots of exciting school and work related things going on right now. I'm taking a really awesome studio class in Value Sensitive Design.
  
• I'm also TA'ing a class in Computer Science on Computing for the Developing World. The topic is fascinating and close to my area of interest and seeing the CSE from the inside is also quite a treat in terms of interdisciplinarity. The class is being simulcast at Microsoft and also at Lahore University of Management Sciences in Lahore, Pakistan.
  

Work

• New projects, new clients, familiar challenges, some familiar faces.
  
• Prepping for a talk that we're given at UPA in Baltimore in June.
  

Local and personal

• This weekend is the famous Olympia procession of the species - I've never been but it's supposed to be super fun. According to the web site, "The intent of the Procession is to elevate the dignity of the human spirit by enhancing the cultural exchange that we have with each other and with the natural world..." - a tall order!
  
• The farmers market is open! Yay! We went a couple weeks back but there was hardly any produce - too early still, but rumors abound of asparagus - so we'll have to check it out again.
• We FINALLY got over our narrowband dilemma and put up the cash for satellite Internet. It's not the fastest connection in the world, but it beats the pants off of dial-up. The worst part is there is this punitive penalty for going over your 200MB daily download limit. If you do (or in my case when) the ISP slams on the breaks and slows your connection to a trickle. They call this their "fair use policy" - I call it BULLPUCKY. Although I can't believe I went almost a year without Internet at home.
  
• Also, trying to catch up with folks since I've been one of these the past couple of months:

It might just be a tempo thing

I'm adjusting to my narrowband lifestyle here in Olympia. I've noticed that the speed of my Internet connection might also be on parallel to the pace of my new life: that is, a little slower. Now some things in Olympia are slow and some are not.

Slow: Most kinds of service, but particularly coffee. so, i must say that the coffee is great. we have local shops and roasters: cafe vita, batdorf and bronson, and mud bay coffee. And you would be hard pressed to find a more delicious, lovely crafted cup of coffee. But it took me a while to get used to the time it takes. But it's not just the devotion to the craft, it's that everyone knows each other, has a story to tell and everyone takes the time to catch up.

Fast: Parking tickets downtown, boy are they speedy. there's a nice guy in shorts wandering around ticketing cars. it's free for the first 90 minutes, but it seems like at exactly 91 minutes he appears, like a nymph and there it is, another ticket.

In terms of Internet, not being "always on" is actually a great thing for me. It's making me be more intentional, more deliberate with me online time. I'm trying to find that balance between having my face stuck in a computer and the new possibilities of my neighborhood to explore.

The things you miss the most

Over the past couple of weeks, I spent quite a bit of time considering what I would miss the most about Seattle. You see, not so long ago J and I decided that Olympia would be our next home. So we spent lots of months researching neighborhoods and sniffing houses. Sniffing because we were looking at older homes downtown and Oly being the soggy town it is and Jeremy's allergies being what they are, we were sniffing for mold. And boy did we find it. So after casting our net further afield we found an amazing little house, nestled the woods, on a street by the sound.

So, the last two weeks were sort of the internal monologue of what will I miss about Seattle. Of all the things I listed, my dear friends, the hustle of the town, favorite restaurants, coffee shops, bars, etc. I had no idea I'd miss the Internet.

Our new house is in some sort of broadband dead zone. All the big companies claim that they don't provide service way out there on the bay, although our new neighbors claim this is a lie. But until we get to the bottom of this, or pay for the infrastructure ourselves, we are living like its the late 90s, that's right a modem! How old school.