The Emily Blog

About a month ago my Droid updated itself (okay, I need to press “ok” a few times) to version 2.1 of the Android operating system. I really liked the results – things ran better, I finally had pinch-and-zoom action for my photos, and lots of applications had features that hadn’t shown up when I was running 2.0. But what I’ve appreciated most in the long run is a handy little application called “News and Weather” that appeared when I updated. It’s such a basic thing – it gives you the current weather and forecast wherever you are (or whatever city you set it to), and you can browse through screens of current news stories in different categories such as World, Sci/Tech, Entertainment, and so on. The powerful part is that I can change these categories so it searches different terms and shows a page of the top news results for each term. Browsing is smooth – just swipe right for the next topic. This is a great complement to Google Reader – I have Reader pulling in a lot of specific feeds, while News and Weather pulls news on subjects I’ve chosen from a wide variety of sources. My “copyright” subject page has stories right now from AP, Hip-Hop Wired, FOXNews, Techdirt, and The Canadian Press. I also have it set to give me stories on the Google Books settlement, on Victoria Espinel (have I mentioned she scares me? But that’s another post), and Hawaii.

In conclusion? Smooth, easy-to-use app that satisfies a need I didn’t even know I had (up-to-date news on a few specific subjects from a wide variety of sources).

We got out hiking for the first time in AGES today – did a loop trail in the Makiki/Tantalus area. One fun part was I had my phone track our path, so (except for a blank spot where the phone got messed up and I had to restart it) here is our path:

View Makiki Hike in a larger map

In the About Me box on my Facebook info page, I’ve written a single, short sentence: “I overanalyze.”

I don’t know if the over- part is true, but I certainly do feel like I’m constantly analyzing things, thinking about how things work, how people work, how interactions work and don’t work, how essential timing in the kitchen is and planning ahead is and making lists is. Okay, maybe I do overanalyze. But I like doing it, and I think I do save myself some time and effort, and at every traffic light on the way to work I always know the order of the lights so I’m never surprised when it’s my turn to go. And I can almost always tell Frans where his missing keys or wallet are.

Anyway (I promise, I’m going somewhere with this), I just started taking a course in the library science program with my staff tuition waiver. The course is called Systems Analysis for Information Management, and while the focus is on digital libraries, it also looks like we’re going to get a good introduction to systems analysis in general. I read the first two chapters of Systems Analysis for Librarians and Information Professionals, and got so excited by the introduction to systems analysis that I texted my dad, “I’m reading about systems analysis! And I like it!” His reply wasn’t quite so enthusiastic.

Maybe my dad is a little older and wiser than me. Or maybe I’ve just found my calling in life.

Maybe epic is a bit of a stretch, but yesterday was certainly eventful in various ways. I’m planning to do the Great Aloha Run (again!) in February, and yesterday was the first morning of the free training clinic for the run. I showed up on a reasonably-cold-but-not-wet morning to warm up, run, and stretch with over 100 other people. Last year I trained with a group that did about half running and half walking; this year I’m in a faster group. It’s definitely more of a challenge, especially since the run up to Diamond Head Lookout we did yesterday was more hill than I’ve run on in months. I enjoyed it, though, and the scenery – especially that early in the morning – is just beautiful. Plus I totally dig taking off my running shoes and standing in the ocean afterwards, then sliding my slippers on and moseying into Starbucks for a short americano, a glass of water, and some well-deserved reading time.

After the running, and a small recovery nap, getting my mother-in-law packed up and off to the airport (we’ll see her again next week), and doing enough house cleaning to not feel too guilty about not doing any more, I made some tea and pulled out my DVDs. I hadn’t watched a movie, other than the Star Trek and documentaries Frans is constantly turning on for background noise, in weeks. Maybe months. I rarely have the patience to sit through an entire movie at once, let alone two in a row. But yesterday afternoon and evening, I watched FOUR MOVIES IN A ROW. A Good Year, then Girl with a Pearl Earring, then A Good Woman, then Love Actually. All of them reasonably cheesy and romantic, but all enjoyable in their own way.

And now, movie binge out of the way, I can get on with other things. Like the TWO WEEKS OF VACATION stretching out in front of me. Oooh boy.

It’s official: we sold the motorcycle this morning and are now full-on Bike Hippies. Frans and I have always (at least all three years we’ve known each other) been pretty serious about doing most of our travel around town by bicycle, but there was a moped towards the beginning, and we bought a motorcycle about two years ago. Now with full-time jobs and more regular schedules, though, we’ve been just letting the motorcycle sit – to the point where the battery was dying – so we decided to sell it and go all-out biker cool.

For me there are three lines of reasoning behind wanting to ride bikes instead of having a motorcycle or car. First, it’s a lot healthier. Second, I don’t want to participate in the crazy American car culture if I don’t have to. Third, bikes are definitely the cheapest way to go.

None of this would work if we didn’t live in a place where our jobs, stores, our friends, and the beach are all under 30 minutes away (often closer to 10). And yeah, it helps that the weather is nice pretty much year-round. Still, I’m proud that we made this decision and I’m happy we both agree that this is a good lifestyle for us right now.

Got my director hat* on. Shenanigans, here we come!

(*Technically Fran’s hat. And not really a director hat. But I’m not going to let mere technicalities slow me down today.)

Really, coolest T-shirt.

Some thinking today: three things (at least) make me feel really good. One is interesting conversations with interesting people. I’ve certainly had my fill of these the last few days, plus two good talks that were part of Open Access week here at UH. Two, running. Yesterday I ran what Frans and I call the “golf course” route, and it was lovely, and I listened to podcasts the whole way. Three . . . what was three? I had these all figured out while I was riding my bike home . . . oh! Three is getting lots of sleep! Plentiful sleep makes me CRAZY AND HAPPY!!

It’s fuzzy on account of being a cell phone photo, but here’s a shot my sister sent me of my other sister’s mastiff/mutt puppy running with Lucy, my mom’s doberman/hound/whatever.

Here I thought I’d have tons of free time to blog during our July travel adventure in the Midwest. WRONG!! It was an interesting trip, saw tons of relatives, many small towns, and one lovely big city (Chicago). Learned that rollerblading is hard work, got a haircut (and bangs!), and read a lot of Patrick O’Brian. Now we’re back in Honolulu and trying to adjust to full-time jobs and everything that goes with them. Upcoming posts: New Camera; New Job.