Digital Cellulose

Ladies and gentlemen, change your links!

2010-02-06T20:08:00.001-08:00

I've moved this here blog to a new location, so please adjust your links and bookmarks and blogrolls accordingly.

http://digitalcellulose.wordpress.com/

There, I hath fixed it.

2010-01-27T10:40:00.001-08:00

There, I hath fixed it., originally uploaded by ItAteMySweater.

I made this in response to having to explain to my parents, yet again, what it is that I do for a living.

So, here. This is what I do: I FIX IT.

[I found the illustration on a "Reward of Merit" ephemera thingy that was loose in one of the scrapbooks I'm currently working with.]

The horrors of photo albums, the joy of wiener dog pictures.

2010-01-20T06:07:00.000-08:00

So I've moved onto "part 2" of my current job as a contract conservator/archivist/librarian/etc. "Part 1" involved processing boxes upon boxes of a WWI/WWII collector's archive. It had everything from war medals to books, as well as thousands of photographs and deteriorating cellulose acetate negatives.

"Part 2" will involve the cataloging, rehousing and treatment of several boxes of photograph albums and scrapbooks. And let me tell you, a lot of these albums are not the type that you have the whole family gather around on the couch. Quite a few of them were assembled by soldiers, fighter pilots and other people who saw the horrors of war. The odd thing, though, is that you'll get several pages of smiling family portraits, the family dog...and then a picture of a dead horse. Or a really, really dead baby by a riverbank. Or a close-up of a bullet hole in a guy's arm.

But then, thankfully, I'll get the equivalent of a "unicorn chaser" in the form of a photo of a dachshund, an ostrich or a Victorian-era British guy in drag with a unicycle.

Reward of Merit

2010-01-15T10:26:00.001-08:00

Reward of Merit, originally uploaded by ItAteMySweater.

Winter in Chicago

2009-12-31T15:53:00.001-08:00

Modern skyline, originally uploaded by ItAteMySweater.

Turkey butter

2009-11-29T19:46:00.001-08:00

Turkey butter, originally uploaded by ItAteMySweater.

Sent from my Starfleet Communicator

My So-Called Green Thumb

2009-10-26T07:25:00.000-07:00

I collect plants like a crazy cat lady collects cats. This will probably take on even greater proportions once spring returns - our apartment has a balcony, which means I can now have OUTSIDE plants like trees and mums! I have taken my plants when I moved from Texas to Austin, and one particularly adventurous philodendron traveled with me from Austin, to Cincinnati, to Sarasota and then back to Austin all in one summer. Succulents (cacti, jade plants, etc) are my bad habit; I cannot resist a succulent on sale.

In the interest of full disclosure, here is the list of all the plants currently residing in my apartment:

Indoor Plants
3 Polka-dot plants (Hypoestes phyllostachya)
3 Caladiums/elephant ears (Caladium bicolor)
2 Philodendrons
3-4 Kalanchoe of 2 varieties
1 Escheveria
1 Aloe plant
1 Jade Plant, Gollum variety (Crassula ovata 'Gollum')
1 Maidenhair fern (Adiantum pedatum)
1 Boston fern (Nephrolepis exaltata)
1 Spike/Blue Dracaena (Cordyline indivisa)
1 Vinca vine (Vinca minor)
2 Basil plants
1 Scallion
1 Thyme (Thymus vulgaris)
1 Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis)
1 Dracena marginata (rescued from an alley)
1 Poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima)
3 Moss terrariums with moss from Berkeley, CA and the Seattle area
1 Asparagus fern (Asparagus aethiopicus)
3 Spider plants (Chlorophytum comosum)

Outdoor Plants
1 Japanese Maple var. Seiryu (Acer palmatum)
2 Chrysanthemums (one from the local Dominick's grocery store, and one fancy variety from the Gethsemane garden store)
1 Scarlet Leader Willowleaf (Cotoneaster salicifolius)

Annnd just because I can, here are all the aquatic plants in my two aquariums!

2 Broad-leaf sagittaria (Sagittaria platyphylla)
3 Dwarf lilies (Nymphaea stellata)
1 Anubias hastifolia
Several specimens of Cryptocoryne, including wendtii and balansae
Several java fern (Microsorum pteropus)
Clump of Lilaeopsis
Lots of hornwort (Ceratophyllum demersum)
Lots of Hygrophila polysperma
Clump of Creeping Charlie (Micromeria brownei)
Clump of Rotala (Rotala indica)
Java moss (Versicularia dubyana)

State of the Suzy Address (or how I spent my summer vacation and autumn unemployment)

2009-10-25T07:45:00.000-07:00

Hello dear reader(s)!

Yes, the rumors of my demise were but mere fabrications. Long story short, I'm still living in Chicago - my wonderful internship at the Northwestern University Library ended back in August, I promptly went on a week-long California vacation, and then I moved to a new apartment the day after I returned from vacation. Note to self: Don't move the day after you get back from vacation, is bad.

I spent the last month and a half unpacking boxes, whipping the apartment decor into shape, building up my little workshop/studio, reading "Y the Last Man", catching up on 30 Rock and Mad Men, terrorizing the squirrels that keep trying to dig up our balcony garden, and generally being one of the millions of unemployed. I am aware that I have proverbially shot myself in the foot for wanting to stay in Chicago (instead of moving to "wherever the job is", as they say) but even in a city as big and culturally-instituted as Chicago, the pickings have been slim. Fortunately, I've managed to pick up some work here and there - such as working on someone's private archival collection and teaching a virtual class on online portfolios for a group of undergrad conservation students at Winterthur.

I have come to realize, though, that there is a need for some kind of business training in any kind of fine-arts (i.e. conservation) education. I know there's the CIPP group of AIC, but in school we were discouraged from going into private practice at the start of our careers. While I still think it's not the greatest move to go into private practice as your first job (post-internship), but in this economic climate I feel that it's prudent for me to branch out and look for what freelance work I can get. Certainly, I know my limits, both in terms of skills and what materials and equipment I have access to: I have no washing sink, no board shear, no bookpress, no fume hood - so I'm not about to start taking on projects that are more than I can handle. But I have other skills that I can market - my ability to design and edit webpages with HTML and CSS, my Photoshop skills, the fact that I went to Library School and have an MSIS degree. Still, we weren't offered any classes in small-business skills, such as the basics of how to write up a legally-sound contract, how to choose your rate, how to estimate how long a project will take, how to protect yourself from liability and how to file your taxes as a freelancer.

I'm sure there's a plethora of books about all these topics, but certainly none from a conservator's or archivist's perspective (if there is, please let me know and I'll buy it in a heartbeat!) - but I'm starting to think that teaching new conservators about good business sense is a lot like teaching sex-education to teenagers (stay with me, now!). Showing someone how to protect themselves and practice safe sex does not mean you're encouraging them to become sexually active before they're ready, or even condoning sex at all - rather, they will be prepared and thus, safe, when that day inevitably comes. It's a lot better to have the information before-hand than to try and learn it as you go, and make some possibly life/career-threatening mistakes. I'd love to know if there are any conservation programs that provide classes on the business skills necessary for going into private practice. Maybe my experience in the UT program was different because of the Library School aspect (there's not a lot of freelance librarians, methinks).

ANYWAY, I will end this wordy post with a picture of me pretending to be a Chicago-style hotdog. If you go to the Chicago History Museum, you too can be a hot dog!

Smoke from the Station wildfire

2009-08-29T16:17:00.001-07:00

Smoke from the Station wildfire, originally uploaded by ItAteMySweater.

Sent from my Starfleet Communicator

Tape puts me in a bad Moody's.

2009-08-11T11:52:00.001-07:00

Tape puts me in a bad Moody's., originally uploaded by ItAteMySweater.

AHHHH!

2009-08-10T09:42:00.001-07:00

AHHHH!, originally uploaded by ItAteMySweater.

Note found in a book during preservation evaluation this morning. It succinctly summarizes my morning: my phone is broken and Climate Notebook is on the fritz again. Ahhhhhhhh!

I am the mongoose whisperer...

2009-08-07T13:24:00.001-07:00

MVI_0715, originally uploaded by blolly.

Scratch at the window, mongoose, scratch! You will do my bidding!

(We went to the Lincoln Park zoo last weekend...)

German staple binding with mylar window on the spine

2009-08-07T09:27:00.001-07:00

German staple binding with mylar window on the spine, originally uploaded by ItAteMySweater.

I've seen several staple-bound, or wire-bound, books while at Northwestern. All of the ones I've seen have been either German or Russian. This particular book was withdrawn, and I wanted to do a reback on it...however, I've done so many rebacks already! Then I decided that I wanted to keep it more as an example of this interesting kind of binding, so I put a little window on the spine while I was repairing it. Now it is functional again AND you can see the staples on the spine!

Audra at The Vespiary has also posted about staple bindings.

Circulation exhibit

2009-08-03T11:52:00.001-07:00

Circulation exhibit, originally uploaded by ItAteMySweater.

The Hummingbird!

2009-07-31T14:14:00.001-07:00

The Hummingbird!, originally uploaded by ItAteMySweater.

Dr Dolittle in the Moon: Before and After

2009-07-29T07:54:00.001-07:00

Dr Dolittle in the Moon: Before and After, originally uploaded by ItAteMySweater.

I bought this book for $2 at the Evanston Public Library book sale. It had no spine at the time of purchase. Doctor Dolittle in the Moon was published in 1928 - this version is the first edition. Here's a gallery of all the various editions!

Return of the Evanston map!

2009-07-28T09:41:00.001-07:00

Northwestern has published a news story about the conservation treatment and digitization of the (big, stinky) Evanston map.

The oldest printed map of Evanston -- discovered several years ago on the verge of disintegration -- has been vibrantly restored and made freely available online by Northwestern University Library.

"This map is a very rare and important piece of Evanston's history," says University Archivist Kevin Leonard, "and the conservation staff here did an incredible job bringing it back from the grave."

Published circa 1876 by local surveyor and mapmaker Theodore Reese, the map appears to be the earliest published plat of blocks, streets and alleys in all three of the separate villages -- north, south and central -- that eventually merged into the incorporated City of Evanston. "So it's valuable as a relic of Evanston's past," Leonard says, "but it also continues to be of use to anyone researching the history of their own or other Evanston real estate, because these were some of the earliest legal property boundaries."

Here is the video about the map's treatment and digitization. My arm is featured prominently, but there's also a shot of me (at 2:20 in) helping Susan place a piece of lining tissue on the back.

Library Restores and Digitizes Oldest Known Map of Evanston from Northwestern News on Vimeo.

Take action! Help save the Kilgarlin Center's Conservation program!

2009-07-24T06:42:00.001-07:00

This is a letter written by Kilgarlin alum Holly Robertson and sent to the PADG email list. As an alum myself, I'm reposting it here so that hopefully more people will see it and provide support for the Kilgarlin Center.

As many of you know, the Conservation Certificate of Advanced Study program of the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin is in jeopardy. Since 1992, the program has been successful in obtaining external funding to support a range of program activities, including key full-time and adjunct faculty positions, conservation lab supplies and equipment, student internships, doctoral fellowships, visiting lecturers, and conferences. Unfortunately, the program's support from NEH, which has long funded the two conservation instructor positions (the backbone of the conservation program's curriculum), will end August 31, 2010. Without these positions, the Kilgarlin Center for Preservation of the Cultural Record will not be able to offer the Conservation Certificate program.

No conservator students were accepted for this upcoming academic year so that an in-depth program review could take place. That review is in its final stages and has mapped a transformative future for the program. Grant, foundation, and private funding are beckoning but will require the University of Texas at Austin to demonstrate evidence of institutional support. The School of Information has constructed wonderful new conservation labs in its new facility (http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/about/move.php), but they won't have a single conservator student to put in them if they don't have funding in place by October 2009 for the coming years. Funding for the two instructor positions must be stabilized immediately.

Your assistance is requested in the form of letters to Vice President and Provost Stephen W. Leslie that request University support of these two conservation instruction positions and that document the program's importance to the field. University funding for even one of these positions will enhance the Kilgarlin Center's ability to attract external foundation or private funding for the other position. Many of you are alums, many others employ Kilgarlin Center grads, and nearly all of you are familiar with the Center's singular role as a library and archives conservation education program. Thank you for your support.

Hard copy letters can be mailed to:

Steven W. Leslie
Executive Vice President and Provost
University of Texas at Austin
1 University Station, G1000
Austin, Texas 78712
sleslie@mail.utexas.edu

Please email copies of these letters to Dean Dillon and Ellen Cunningham-Kruppa:

Andrew P., Dillon
Dean, School of Information
adillon@ischool.utexas.edu

Ellen Cunningham-Kruppa
Director, Kilgarlin Center for Preservation of the Cultural Record
e.cunnk@mail.utexas.edu

- - - - - - -

Holly
CAS, Conservation Studies - 2005

In the midst of lining...

2009-07-22T10:01:00.001-07:00

In the midst of lining..., originally uploaded by ItAteMySweater.

Previous repair

2009-07-20T12:11:00.001-07:00

Previous repair, originally uploaded by ItAteMySweater.

Working on Martini Opitti w/coffee tower in background.

2009-07-14T14:15:00.001-07:00

Working on Martini Opitti w/coffee tower in background., originally uploaded by ItAteMySweater.

ALA 2009

2009-07-10T10:49:00.000-07:00

Currently in downtown Chicago for the annual American Library Association conference. Weather is rainy but warm and there are no couches in the conference areas of the Hilton Hotel. Guess nobody expects us to sit and blog during the downtime, which is why I've been holed up in this Starbucks for a while.

Anyway, short update: Suzy's current life plan=stay in Chicago.

Also, I found this awesome publisher's binding at the Evanston Public Library book sale about two weeks ago. It is a first edition of "Doctor Dolittle Goes to the Moon", with bright magenta and teal covers and crazy printed endpapers. It is missing its spine but the textblock was in fine shape. And all for the price of $2. <3

Socially Networked Preservation

2009-06-11T12:37:00.000-07:00

I recommend watching Kevin Driedger's online presentation "Socially Networked Preservation". In fact, you can watch it while your frozen pizza is cooking in the oven - by the time it's all nice and hot and crispy, you'll have learned all about the brave new frontier of conservators using Web 2.0 technology. I think it pairs well with DiGiorno's garlic bread pepperoni pizza.

Socially Networked Preservation

View more OpenOffice presentations from Kevin Driedger.

The unicorn dodges!

2009-06-08T13:15:00.001-07:00

The unicorn dodges!, originally uploaded by ItAteMySweater.

Tools used in book repair and restoration

2009-06-03T15:10:00.001-07:00

Tools used in book repair and restoration, originally uploaded by ItAteMySweater.

Pigskin for bookbinding!

2009-06-03T09:31:00.001-07:00

Pigskin for bookbinding!, originally uploaded by ItAteMySweater.

"A Man of Leisure", Before Treatment

2009-05-28T08:47:00.001-07:00

"A Man of Leisure", Before Treatment, originally uploaded by ItAteMySweater.

Declare your independence (in your notes, not in our books!)

2009-05-27T14:06:00.001-07:00

Another poster I'm working on for a "user awareness" exhibit @ the circulation desk. Anyone else have this much trouble with students highlighting, writing and marking in library books?

Back from AIC

2009-05-27T05:58:00.000-07:00

I have since returned from AIC in a sunny but chilly LA, to a decidedly cool and rainy Chicago. Apparently word is that it got up to 80 something in Chicago while I was gone and was generally gorgeous.

Anyway, just a brief note to mention that Dan Cull has put up a coherent summary of all the Web 2.0 madness that took place under everyone's noses.

Digital surrogates (aka Photoshop for conservation)

2009-05-22T10:41:00.001-07:00

Just heard Adam Novak's interesting talk about using digital surrogates as loss compensation in the print "Siege of La Rochelle" at the National Gallery of Art.

When to use digital surrogates instead of inpainting by hand:
*can make large time commitment
*area of loss is too large to reproduce by hand
*have access to a copy of same print

Sadly, he chose to use the magic wand tool instead of the much more accurate and powerful "Select Color Range" tool.

I appreciated that he showed each step of his image-altering and print-setup process. Also, he used 4 separate images of the same replacement print to create a "best fit" montage. On top of that, he also had to choose the right kind of paper to match the original print itself. I know from personal experience that this can be a royal pain in the tuchis. And then Golden acrylics came out with a Digital Ground for preparing materials to accept inkjet inks. Which unfortunately is soluble in water, but Golden is working on make a less-soluble version of their Digital Ground.

In the end, though, Novak created a more than acceptable surrogate without the use of the Digital Ground.

LIbrary and Archives collections discussion groups @ BPG

2009-05-21T10:57:00.000-07:00

Spent the day in the Book & Paper Group discussion talks about library and archival collections.

Anne Hillam (New York Academy of Medicine) and Renate Mesmer's (Folger Shakespeare LIbrary) talk "The Use of Rubber Cement for Facing Leather Spines: A Viable Option?" was fascinating. They described their experimental use of rubber cement (boo! hiss!) to face fragile leather on tightback spines before lifting them. Their method consists of applying a microcrystaline-wax barrier layer to the leather, then a layer of rubber cement followed by plastic wrap. Once it has dried, you then can lift the leather as usual and sand the flesh layer down as necessary. Once the spine has been readhered to the book, the plastic wrap can be peeled away the rubber cement just rolls right off mechanically. Like picking dried Elmer's glue from your fingers when you were a kid, I reckon. They also heartily encouraged all of us to try out this method for ourselves and to do our own research on its effectiveness and any potential drawbacks.

Priscilla Anderson and Sarah Reidell had a great 2-part talk about Adhesive Pre-Coated Repair Materials. They also gave out an impressive handout of both how-to's and recipes for a variety of pre-coated adhesive repair materials. And their presentation included some how-to videos that I would love to see online. Same goes for the handout! Their handout would make for some great wiki/blog material, esp if people could chime in with their own experiences or recipe-tweaks.

EDIT: PDFs of the handouts from today's Library Collections Conservation Discussion Group talks can be found here.

Heat-set tissue tips:

*use large piece of glass over tissue, over object, then place heating pad on glass for several hours until tissue is activated & sticks

*use of resins/Beva to infill leather losses - moldable & can be tinted

*wet out pre-coated berlin tissue using Klucel G to avoid adding extra solvent (I think?)

Conservation 2.0 (WiFi not included)

2009-05-20T11:43:00.000-07:00

A big nitpick I must make: why is there such terrible wifi connectivity in the conference room? Conservation 2.0: internet not included.

see more Fail Blog

AIC is not ALA

2009-05-20T11:04:00.000-07:00

...but I'm liveblogging it anyway!

Best talk thus far has been Joyce Stoner's "Conservation 1.0" which was really like "All you wanted to know about the history of art conservation but were afraid to ask...in 20 minutes". Of course the finer points of what was and wasn't included can be argued about ad nauseum, but it was informative nonetheless. Would make a great video if it were remixed ala Battlestar Galactica's 8-minute recap video "What the Frak?"

Finally met Richard McCoy, a la "Hi, we've never met but I know you from the internet!" Maybe there should be "blogger" ribbons for next year's AIC, like they have at ALA. OR we could all wear funny hats with large ostrich feathers to pick each other out of the crowd.

Still thinking about whether or not the Web 2.0 communication style is "in our DNA" (per Richard) like it is for librarian-types and museum folk. Conservators seem to not be as quick to embrace this sort of open-source, collaborative, information-explosion type of communication...but there are many exceptions regardless.

Crazy bicycle route of today

2009-05-15T07:29:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I biked down to Argyle from work, and today I biked up from Argyle to work! It was a commute of about 6.8 miles, but it would be less had I not took so many little detours. I'm scouting out a good route between my place and Chris' apartment. The lake front trail doesn't even begin until about Loyola, and Sheridan and Clark are terrible streets to bike on - fortunately there seems to be several nicer residential streets running parallel between Clark and Sheridan. This was my route this morning - once I got into Evanston I was actually just going along the Evanston lakeshore trail, not on Sheridan per the map.

Also, the pot holes in this city are some of the worst I've ever seen.

View Larger Map

Portfolio website

2009-05-13T06:00:00.000-07:00

So I'm in the midst of updating and revising my portfolio website - I've had it since 2007, but it was originally created for a class assignment than as a self-marketing tool. One of the things I don't like about the current design is the individual treatment pages: essentially each page is just the standard, technical-language treatment report. Which is very boring and confusing for those who are not conservators, and even probably for several conservators. It certainly bores the heck out of me, so I've been thinking about how to make my webpage more interesting and engaging. I like what Jeff Peachey has done with his treatment reports:

"The pages below are not treatment reports, but an informal tour through the treatment, with consideration of issues they raise that I find interesting, much like what I would during a studio tour"

One of the things I really want to add is some bibliographic or historical information about the various objects I've worked on. Author biographies, brief historical notes about the binding style , printing technique, or the content of the object (like the Ira Aldridge broadsides). I've even researched the biographical information of the lady who left her name inside the Journal of Health book. These sorts of things just don't have a spot in the treatment report forms I've used in the past, but I think they're an important part of the object's history and also help provide some context for the treatment and the collection/library it came from.

Finally, I also want to write up more of a treatment "walk-through", to outline more of the decision-making process that goes into each step of a treatment. With the current layout, you can't really get the sense of how I started out with one approach but ended up using a different method than originally planned. I also like pairing up the "before and after" photos, even though this is most effective with those "Conservation, Wow!" treatments with the most dramatic outward changes.

Lake Michigan on a nice May day

2009-05-10T11:39:00.001-07:00

Lake Michigan on a nice May day, originally uploaded by ItAteMySweater.

A successful evening of beach glass arranging

2009-05-07T21:22:00.001-07:00

IMG_6652, originally uploaded by ItAteMySweater.

Tape is NOT KOSHER.

2009-05-06T18:01:00.001-07:00

Soferet request: DON'T TAPE YOUR TORAH!, originally uploaded by soferet.

From the description: "At the very beginning where the parchment is attached to the roller, some genius used tape to patch tears. This makes the Torah not kosher. & it ruins the parchment."

...whodathunkit that tape was not only evil but also not kosher!

LOL mug

2009-05-06T17:28:00.001-07:00

LOL mug, originally uploaded by ItAteMySweater.

I win this round!

Kalanchoe and aloe

2009-05-06T09:37:00.001-07:00

Kalanchoe and aloe, originally uploaded by ItAteMySweater.

Book Oiler's Delight

2009-05-04T21:23:00.001-07:00

Book Oiler's Delight, originally uploaded by ItAteMySweater.

As seen at the Newberry LIbrary. Some things you just don't want an explanation for...

2009-04-28T12:35:00.000-07:00

(evil, evil tape on "The Dances of Death")

(tiny book of French poetry with very friable spine leather...during treatment)

Library propaganda

2009-04-08T06:08:00.001-07:00

This is the original, FYI:

Ira Aldridge Theater broadsides

2009-04-01T09:44:00.001-07:00

So I finally finished the Ira Aldridge theater broadsides...
(Image from this website, "Shakespeare in American Life").
Ira Aldridge was an African American actor who was known as the "African Roscius" and had top billing at theaters in England. He is the only actor of African American descent among the 33 actors of the English stage with bronze plaques at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon (see the Wikipedia article).

Before [Left] and After [Right] conservation treatment

Before [Left] and After [Right] conservation treatment

Plants making babies.

2009-03-24T06:35:00.001-07:00

My Kalanchoe is happy again, now that I moved it to the windowsill. So happy it has decided to clone itself! It's made little plant-babies on the edges of its leaves...

Also, I wish I remembered what this plant is...I need to replant it into a bigger pot, but it's lived successfully in a tiny ceramic shoe for almost two years now.

LEGOs

2009-03-24T06:28:00.001-07:00

I found a large tub of LEGOs abandoned on the side of the road while on my way home last night. Chris and I played LEGOs for hours (well, I played for about an hour, buthe played for a few more while I worked on my ANAGPIC presentation). I made a lobster and he made a rocket ship.

Take an anger management class, dude.

2009-03-19T12:11:00.001-07:00

This book was run over three times, on three separate pages.

Better is the enemy of good.

2009-03-19T12:08:00.000-07:00

1) Underline with red pencil.
2) Use white-out to cover up red pencil underlining.
3) Use a pen to write the words back in that you painted over with the white-out.

Adventures of a librarian!

2009-03-02T14:02:00.000-08:00

From Libraryland

New fish.

2009-03-02T06:09:00.000-08:00

On Sunday, Chris and I got some more fauna for my aquariums. I also picked up some test kits (finally!) including one for iron. The guy at the fish store was impressed that I got the iron testing kit, which made me feel better after previously getting into a geeky argument with two of the other employees about the merits of Siamese Algae Eaters versus the merits of Thai Flying Foxes. The jury is still out on that one.

2 mystery snails
1 giant, filter-feeding wood shrimp
3 Amano algae-eating shrimp
1 croaking gourami

An appalling lack of breakfast tacos (or reason #5 why I miss Austin)

2009-02-25T07:38:00.000-08:00

I ALWAYS get cravings for breakfast tacos when it is impossible to acquire anything resembling a breakfast taco. Therefore, here, in the middle of white-bread Evanston, just shy of the end of breakfast-time, I WANT A BREAKFAST TACO. I want THREE BREAKFAST TACOS.

But there are no breakfast tacos to be had. :(

Barbie models the tiny Bible

2009-02-24T15:00:00.000-08:00

I finished my treatment of the miniature Bible from Special Collections. Barbie was kind enough to model it...

Drop-lining, or: I'm a YouTube star!

2009-02-24T13:16:00.001-08:00

Yup, that's me, in green.

Exhibit: HIV/AIDS Materials from Nigeria

2009-02-13T13:16:00.000-08:00

Images of the exhibit I worked on back in December and January. It'll stay up in the library until February 26th.

I created these poster display mounts in the tall exhibit cases, since we didn't want to put them on the wall (where they'd be unsecured) and we wanted to showcase as many posters as possible. It's two pieces of Vyvek plastic, notched at the center, and supported by a base of several layers of matboard with a groove cut into it to hold the plastic. Magnets then hold the posters to the plastic, allowing eight posters for each display.

Giant, filthy, cracking map of Evanston

2009-02-13T13:05:00.000-08:00

Recent things I have enjoyed watching on the internets.

2009-01-23T05:54:00.001-08:00

*SQUEE* Battlestar Galactica is back! Oh em gee! */SQUEE*

These two SNL shorts have become recent favorites of mine...

Oh, and did you know that Monty Python now has their very own YouTube channel? It's quite brilliant, really. From the horse's mouth:

For 3 years you YouTubers have been ripping us off, taking tens of thousands of our videos and putting them on YouTube. Now the tables are turned. It's time for us to take matters into our own hands.

We know who you are, we know where you live and we could come after you in ways too horrible to tell. But being the extraordinarily nice chaps we are, we've figured a better way to get our own back: We've launched our own Monty Python channel on YouTube.

No more of those crap quality videos you've been posting. We're giving you the real thing - HQ videos delivered straight from our vault.

What's more, we're taking our most viewed clips and uploading brand new HQ versions. And what's even more, we're letting you see absolutely everything for free. So there!

But we want something in return.

None of your driveling, mindless comments. Instead, we want you to click on the links, buy our movies & TV shows and soften our pain and disgust at being ripped off all these years.

Old sign at the Newberry Library.

2009-01-14T19:10:00.000-08:00

Fishgeek

2009-01-14T17:17:00.001-08:00

Chris and I went to the Shedd last weekend, on one of their free admission days. He took a lot of little videos with his camera of the various fish. Here is a video of me being a total DORK and geeking out about all the fish...I am particularly excited about the boxfish.

Baroo?

2009-01-14T06:01:00.000-08:00

Three Confused Pugs @ Yahoo! Video

Restoration of a Stegosaurus

2009-01-13T13:49:00.001-08:00

Hollingsworth BEFORE restoration, originally uploaded by trinkster75.

ARRRRRRRRRGH BOOK TAPE AAAAAAAAAAAARGGH

2009-01-13T13:14:00.000-08:00

Before (with tape on spine):

After (with tape on spine):

Conclusion: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHH!

And the pain continues here on their book-repair business website. A terrifying example of fail-binding follows:

"REPAIR YOUR BOOK YOURSELF ONLY IF YOU DON'T CARE WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE
I know, we all want and need to save $$$$
Packing tape is ugly, but it can hold a book together. That way all the notes you wrote by the recipes will not be lost forever.

White school glue is not flexible. Using it will make the pages stiff. But if this does not matter to you, go ahead and use it. I have a friend who owns a used book store and he uses "Tacky Glue". He swears by it."

Bookbinder's carts

2009-01-13T12:34:00.001-08:00

I am fascinated by these bookbinder's cargo bike/carts...do these itinerant bookbinders go about doing house (library?) calls?

yellow bookbinder's bakfiets, originally uploaded by keeshu.

Helsinki, originally uploaded by Ozan™.

Snowy update.

2008-12-23T07:02:00.000-08:00

Cost of parking at Midway airport: $58.50
Cost of getting my car towed and ticketed if they declare a snow emergency in Evanston when I'm out of town: $100

Cost of being frustrated because neither of these are good options because I am poor poor poor: priceless.

In other news, my boyfriend is TEH AWESOME. He bought me eggplant and daikon radish papyrus from Hiromi Paper...AND he got me the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Pop-up book that I'd been drooling over! I posted about the pop-up book over on the Kilgarlin blog.

Fossilized update.

2008-12-16T18:40:00.000-08:00

Interesting spine lining.

2008-12-05T10:03:00.000-08:00

It says "Chatterbox".

Oscars.

2008-12-03T21:17:00.000-08:00

Upcoming "HIV/AIDS educational material from Nigeria" Exhibit

2008-11-19T15:01:00.000-08:00

This is the poster I made for an upcoming exhibit about "HIV/AIDS Educational Materials from Nigeria". It's going up December 1st, and it's been a lot of work but good experience.

Also it is winterish now! We had snow on Sunday night and it's been pretty cold. BRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

SUZY SUZY SUZY, the Jalapeno of my Eye - w4w - 24 (Evanston)

2008-10-30T20:20:00.001-07:00

SUZY SUZY SUZY, the Jalapeno of my Eye - w4w - 24 (Evanston)
Reply to: pers-900102174@craigslist.org [?]
Date: 2008-10-30, 9:02PM CDT

You weren't here to tell me not to touch my eyes after I handled that jalapeno, and Suzy, I touched my eye! And it stings! Where were you?? You should have been here! But OH NO, you had to go get some crazy barbecue beef pork pulled sandwich because that, apparently, is more important than the health of my now jalapeno ridden eye. Jerk.

The Reluctant Mr. Pumpkin

2008-10-29T09:40:00.000-07:00

Removing the back of Nelson Mandela

2008-10-27T14:01:00.000-07:00

It's Friday!

2008-10-24T12:55:00.000-07:00

From Digital Cellulose

Economic recession be damned - let's go get retail therapy!

2008-10-23T06:28:00.000-07:00

I couldn't stand the guilt and just pledged $10 to WBEZ, Chicago Public Radio. They had Ira Glass calling people's houses and asking them why they hadn't pledged! Such a thing terrifies me...so I gave them my support to avoid making Ira Glass sad.

Then I went and bought myself another pop-up book, called ABC3D. It was only $12! And it was featured on BoingBoing! Here's a video..it's fantastic! I am so not addicted to pop-up books, honestly, I swear! I can quit whenever I want...!

Abc3D - video powered by Metacafe

Working on a 1930's Chicago Science & Industry Museum book

2008-10-20T13:43:00.000-07:00

Burrito shout-out

2008-10-20T11:08:00.001-07:00

Mary is slowly but surely eating her way across the burrito places on Clark St, here in Chicago. She's got a blog to document her (and her burrito cohort, Cortney)progress...I went on the inaugural burrito-eating adventure, but haven't gotten to go out since with them. Despite this, I still made a brief cameo appearance, which I will present here for you, my dear reader(s).

From this post:Burrito? As in a little Burro? Like the animal? A little burro eating carrots?

So, late last night, in a flurry of sleeplessness (because Cortney and I aren't people who sleep very much -- we'd like to, but it just isn't hardwired into our systems, this sleep thing), I made quesadillas. Fried corn tortillas with a slice of queso fresco warm in the center. Yay quesadillas! These are not burritos, but they are also delicious.

I recently made my roommate aware of how awesome queso fresco is. She ate all of mine and bought more, so I ate some of hers last night. I told her this, "Moving to Evanston is a world of changes for you. Ne job, new apartment, new boyfriend, new favorite cheese." For me, moving to Evanston has been a lot more of the same but in a different setting. I'm just tired, but I just don't sleep, and instead I find myself at 3am, when I've been awake for 21 hours, washing my quesadilla pan out, wondering if I will ever figure all of this out. Wondering if I'll ever understand the situation of burritos and how they fit into the greater scheme of things, wondering, wondering, is this it? Is it just me staying up forever and making lovely things and having crises and enjoying the occasional moment of wonder in queso fresco?

So yes, go read Burritos on Clark and taste the adventure.

Today is a mess.

2008-10-17T10:03:00.000-07:00

Nyaaarrrgh.

2008-10-15T21:54:00.000-07:00

ARGH. DENIED.

Awesome x 2

2008-10-15T21:37:00.000-07:00

A list of Chicago bars that carry Shiner Bock.
This t-shirt, which I want because it's only $10. Oh, and also because it's TOO ENERGETIC FOR NORMAL SPORTS.

My bench today.

2008-10-13T10:01:00.000-07:00

Almost finished with this book...

2008-10-13T10:00:00.000-07:00

There were (are) so many fiddly things I had to do to this book. Ugh. I'm almost finished though. Maybe today!

Ironic juxtaposition

2008-10-09T11:31:00.000-07:00

I need to stop waking up to NPR...it's just too depressing these days...

From Digital Cellulose

You have acquired...breakfast.

2008-10-06T05:57:00.000-07:00

I am a cereal hoarder. I buy cereal even when I don't "need" it, just so I can have more cereal diversity in my kitchen.

My current cereal round-up:

Multigrain Cheerios
Mother's Peanut Butter Bumpers (it's like organic Peanut Butter Captain Crunch)
Jewel-Osco brand Peanut Butter Spheres
Fruity Cheerios (eat your heart out, Brendan)
Kix
Life
Mother's Cinnamon Oat Crunch

I dreamt of electric sheep!

2008-10-04T20:15:00.000-07:00

The sheep was performing at the Wired NextFest today, in Chicago's Millennium Park.

This is a better video, perhaps, posted by someone else on the internet:

Also, some photos I took:

LOOK UPON THE FUTURE! From Digital Cellulose

Plastic from citrus.From Digital Cellulose

Spiral water filter by XeroxFrom Digital Cellulose

Buscuits!

2008-10-04T07:56:00.000-07:00

From the Chicago Craigslist Missed Connections section:

warm cappuccino and buscuits.... - m4w
Reply to: pers-864521196@craigslist.org [?]
Date: 2008-10-03, 12:03AM CDT

I am desperate....I am offering free coffee and buscuits to the first person who will write me my very first own MC....if you make me go 'wow'...then dinner as well :)

Mary says that buscuits are biscuits you eat on the bus.

Preventing Conservation

2008-10-02T07:30:00.001-07:00

Oh but do I love Recent Setbacks in Conservation.

Here are some abstracts:

Conservation of the Journal of the American Institute for
Conservation: results of a survey and treatments by Jeff Peachey

The preservation and conservation of the Journal of the American Institute for Conservation(JAIC) is perhaps one of the most vexing and complex problems in all of conservation. Three times a year, these journals arrive with bent corners, torn covers, water damage and, in one case, fire damage. Today’s successful conservator in private practice must be image conscious – after all, what respectable lawyer has his shelves adorned with tattered paper covers? Gold-stamped leather spines mean something. They mean power and money and wealth and fame, all the things conservators secretly crave while spending all day surface cleaning some ruined, worthless, meaningless piece of paper. But I digress. I have lost more than one client, running from my studio, clutching their priceless Victorian Bible after merely glancing at the condition of my JAIC collection. I felt I might not be alone in dealing with this problem, therefore humbly decided to publish the results of this survey and some of the treatments I performed in an attempt to deal with this important, difficult problem.

SALVAGING PHOTO DOCUMENTATION by Dr. Derfliw E’ Neerg
Institute for Institutional Advancement

A method is described for salvaging both photo documentation, and careers in conservation. I can’t see the point of all these damned abstracts! Why don’t you just read the bloody paper? Or is that too hard?

Tape

2008-08-16T13:53:00.001-07:00

I can't believe I just spent $18 on packing tape. Ugh.

marriedtothesea.com

The end of academia?

2008-08-14T10:22:00.000-07:00

I just finished and turned in what may very well be the last academic paper I will ever have to write for school. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

marriedtothesea.com

Wrong Number.

2008-08-14T08:39:00.000-07:00

Dear whomever-it-is-that-thinks-I-am-somebody-named-Cheryl-or-Cherie,

STOP CALLING ME. ESPECIALLY AT 6:45AM. WRONG NUMBER.

Sincerely,

Me.

I'm so excited, I'm so excited...I'm so scared!

2008-08-13T06:43:00.000-07:00

Note to self: taking half of a no-doz is not very helpful when trying to finish your research paper - it will cause you to run around in circles and speak very quickly.

Scavenger Hunt!

2008-08-10T21:57:00.000-07:00

So my roommate, Mary, and I are having a photo scavenger hunt to help us determine who should get the bigger (and somewhat better) room in our apartment. We've already finished gathering photos, so now it's time to turn to the rest of the internet to help with the voting.

Please, please, please visit our scavenger hunt blog and vote for your favorite photos! There are 31 pairs of photos, but only one chance to play a historical role in settling this epic photographic battle!

Milestone

2008-08-07T10:20:00.000-07:00

At approximately 11pm last night I discovered my first gray hair. After tearing it out of my head, I taped it to a piece of paper to punish and shame it. We'll see if it grows back after that! Fie!

On Two Wheels

2008-08-04T09:38:00.000-07:00

When I was an undergrad, I owned a terrible bike of the sort you get from Target or Wal-Mart. It was the poster child for what cycling enthusiasts call a Bike-Shaped-Object. When I graduated, I left the thing chained to bike rack next to the mailroom, and the key hidden in an envelope between two books in the library. It was a riddle for anyone willing to take it on - I left a big fat hint on the Livejournal community - essentially, "the key is between two books in the stacks relevant to my future career". That would be library science, for those of you not paying attention.

Anyway, I went back to my alma mater in January and the key was gone but the bike was still there. It's a mystery, but not really. The thing was rusted to hell and back and I don't think the brakes were working all that well when I locked it up before I left.

The point of this story is, I'm a bike commuter. When I moved to Austin, I picked up a bike that was almost the same as the bike I had before. As can be expected, it was a piece of crap and I had to practically beg the local bike shop to fix it when a part of the crank kept breaking. Eventually, I wised up and kicked that thing to the curb (i.e. I sold it on Craigslist for $10). Then I purchased a real bike - a 1983 Schwinn varsity. It's a Chicago Schwinn, one of the "most bomb-resistant bikes ever built" according to the late Sheldon Brown.

In my daily commute, I don't have to go very far - just between my apartment and campus, which is approximately 1.4 miles each way. That's peanuts in the bike commuting world, but I'd also like to point out that somehow it's uphill both ways. However, when I move to Evanston, my commute will be longer but also FLAT AS A PANCAKE. I may freeze to death, but at least I don't have to go up so many damn hills! I expect to be biking a lot more in my new city, given that finding a parking space usually involves a fight to the death and I'm going to be within walking/biking distance of not just my workplace, multiple grocery stores (including Whole Foods), my new Aikido dojo and two El stops.

To compare, I've plugged in all the places I've lived in on WalkScore - a website that gives you a "walkable" score for your neighborhood.

My new place in Evanston: 84 (out of 100)
My current apartment in Austin: 75
My boyfriend's apartment: 37
Parents' house in Bixby, OK: 6
Galesburg (IL) Apartment (Senior Year): 51
House in Tulsa, OK (College): 5
House in Tulsa (High School): 3

So far, the bike-commutability/walkability of the places I've lived in has improved with each move...i.e. I moved from Tulsa (3-6), to Galesburg (51), to Austin (75) and now to Evanston (84). In all fairness, I should point out that Tulsa does have Biker Fox going for it...

NerdList: Comics

2008-07-31T07:01:00.000-07:00

In the spirit of providing my sole reader (hi Brendan!) with some content, I will now list all the (web)comics that I'm currently reading. I'm *very* picky about webcomics and one sure way to annoy the heck out of me is to geek at me about some comic you think I MUST READ. If it's a dramatic, story-based comic, I have NO tolerance for mediocre or bad art. Also, I tend to despise "geek comics" that are solely about video or roleplaying games...Penny Arcade being the one exception, and even then it fails to catch my interest about 50% of the time.

The Current Comics-Suzy-Is-Reading List

FreakAngels by Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield has nice art and an interesting story set in a corner of post-apocalyptic London that is protected by a group of "FreakAngels" with telepathic powers.
Family Man by Dylan Meconis, is about 18th century German werewolves who are also in University! Dylan Meconis also did Bite Me! If you haven't read "Bite Me!" you are an ignorant fool. It is about vampires!
Achewood
Penny-Arcade
xkcd
I ♥ the wonderfully philosophical and surreal Cat and Girl.
Speaking of surreal, there's the creepy yet hilarious Garfield Minus Garfield .
Kate Beaton's comics are also hilarious, yet somewhat historically accurate.
Also, because I'm in grad school of course I must read PHD Comics.
Since I like coffee I am also required to read Too Much Coffee Man.
Married to the Sea is full of weird goodness. I printed this one out and stuck it on the wall next to the board shear in the booklab.
The same guy also does Toothpaste for Dinner:
And sadly, the Perry Bible Fellowship is now on indefinite hiatus, but it is pretty much my favorite comic of all time.

How NOT to fix books...

2008-07-30T13:10:00.000-07:00

Ugh. So there's a couple of these videos on YouTube about "How to Repair Flaws in Used Books" that are absolutely wretched from a conservation AND personal-safety standpoint. In the first one, the woman douses the corner of a poor book with Ronsonol Lighter Fluid...aka NAPTHA, a dangerous, carcinogenic, flammable solvent (click for a PDF of its MSDS). Yes, go ahead and risk your health (not to mention the condition of your book) just to get that annoying price sticker off the book you're going to sell on eBay for $20. Also, fire safety be damned!

In a second video, the same woman shows us how to remove an inscription (i.e. somebody's name) from the fly-leaf or title page....WITH TAPE. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH. Provenance be damned!

My lungfish...let me show you it.

2008-07-29T10:49:00.000-07:00

I have a lungfish. His name is Pneumichthys, which is ancient Greek for "breath fish". Of the three kinds of lungfish, he's one of the friendlier species - a South American lungfish, or Lepidosiren paradoxa. The African species tend to eat anything that will somewhat fit in their mouths, whereas you can keep a South American lungfish with other fish (within limits, of course). And the Australian species is endangered and very difficult to find in the aquarium trade.

Currently, Pneumy lives in my 40 gallon "breeder" aquarium with about 8 "emerald eye" rasboras , a single female platy* and a lone yo-yo loach**. The tank is planted with several flavors of Cryptocoryne, some hornwort, Java moss and Java fern.

During the first 3 or 4 months in Austin, I worked at a local aquarium store - Pneumy had been there from day 1, but he was all the way back in a neglected tank at the end of a row. He was just a tiny worm baby, but I noticed him and built him up a nicer tank and started feeding him live blackworms. Once that started, he finally began to grow, but I think that being neglected at such a critical point during his development has left him stunted. Currently, he's only about 10 inches, but he's at least a year and a half old.

I've been feeding him on frozen "shrimp ice cubes" and shrimp pellets once in a while. I just take a bag of the smallest cocktail shrimp, blend them up in the food processor until they're in bite-size chunks, then portion them out into ice cube trays and top them off with a little bit of water. MUCH cheaper than buying commercial frozen fish food at a pet store. He's picky though, and didn't like the frozen Tilapia cubes as much as the shrimp, nor did he like the expensive beef heart I got from the pet store. Sigh.

The thing about Pneumy is that I think of him like one would think of a dog or a cat - he's going to get rather large (possibly 3-4 feet) and live for a long time. The Shedd Aquarium has an African lungfish, named Grandad, who's been there since 1933.

And in about 30 days I have to move them all to Chicago...

* The last of a 4 generation Platy "dynasty" from my Knox days
** I started out with 5 loaches, and after a heater malfunction and at least two suicide cases, I've only got one left. I'm not adding anymore, though I hate having the single loach I need to save room for Pneumy.

This-to-That

2008-07-27T14:51:00.000-07:00

James alerted me to the awesomeness that is This-to-That, a website devoted to providing advice on how to glue one thing to another thing. Gluing metal to wood is one thing...gluing a crayfish to the inside of a plastic tube is another...

We're currently racing to be the first lab in the world to do fMRI studies with crayfish. (Admittedly, we may be the only ones running this race.) Crayfish, as you probably don't know, are a great, easy-to-use model animal for asking and answering questions relevant to the basic functioning of all vertebrate nervous systems, so by answering my question you will be indirectly benefiting all humankind.

What we need to do is glue the carapace of live adult crayfish to the inside of a plastic Nalgene centrifuge tube, which will then be placed inside a tiny (3.7cm) custom-made fMRI coil. We have to glue them in because if the animal moves at all, the image will be blurred. We might also be gluing the animals' eyestalks in place because if they move, the brain moves.

Here's the catch: because adult crayfish of the biggest size are difficult to grow, expensive to obtain, and rather endearing once you get to know them, we'd like to be able to dissolve the glue once we're done so that the crayfish can be re-used, go on living their little crayfish lives, etc. So we need a glue that dries fast, won't dissolve in water, is relatively nontoxic, and can be dissolved by a relatively nontoxic solvent. Any ideas?

Edwards' Lab
Georgia State University

Read their answer here.

Sophie puppy

2008-07-26T08:30:00.001-07:00

Sad o'clock...no more!

2008-07-24T11:55:00.000-07:00

The clock in the IT lab has been broken for the PAST THREE DAYS. Not only did it cease to tell proper time, it also made an increasingly continuous TERRIBLE, MADNESS-INDUCING NOISE.

But hark! A cowboy came and took away the clock, relieving us of its horrific aural torture.

Adventures in vintage art...

2008-07-23T09:34:00.000-07:00

Whenever I go thrifting or garage-saleing, I'm ALWAYS on the lookout for gravel art. I'd like to call myself a "collector" of gravel art, but in reality I only have two pieces thus far - a geisha and a golden peacock. In fact, back in the days of Tulsa thrifting, I turned my nose up at a few other works of gravel art because they weren't sufficiently interesting. In addition, I only go for the gravel art that has the canvas background - not ones that are gravel from edge to edge, i.e. a gravel subject and a gravel background. Ebay torments me with wonderful examples of gravel art for sale at exorbitant prices...I've resisted thus far, but it's also proved educational. For example, my geisha is meant to have a samurai companion, and my peacock is apparently pining for his mate. Whatevs. I totally have the odd-couple of gravel art and I'll be damned if I let just any stupid "country scene" or "fruit basket" picture horn in on the gravelly bliss that currently resides on my apartment wall...

Look to the left side of the picture and you can see the geisha and her peacock just chilling out on the wall of my old apartment.

The Boyfriend Key

2008-07-22T22:14:00.000-07:00

Me: "Just let yourself in..you have the key."
B: "But not the pig!"
Me: "I gave the pig to someone else..."
B: [sadface] "The pig is inside my heart?"
Me: "The pig was inside you this whole time!"

Hilariously inappropriate use of the term "Smart living"

2008-07-22T22:08:00.000-07:00

Brought to you by the brains behind News 8 Austin.