Bancroft Library

I was surprisingly impressed. Beautiful library. I remember first walking in and going... I want to live here. The architecture was amazing and so was the interior design. But I digress, let's talk about the actual visit.

1. Being able to actually touch thousand year old artifacts. I could not BELIEVE that the handler didn't have to wear gloves like they usually do in the movies or National geographic magazines. These artifacts came out in these nicely packaged boxes and were soooo old, but it was okay to actually touch. I mean I wasn't going to complain if I could actually touch a 100+ year old church song book... but still! Also I remember hearing him say that it was okay to touch and that "I purposely bought it so that it could be handled." So cool.

2. It was hard making books. Really hard. So in the back times, we would have to request a book a year in advanced?! That's so intense. And I'm sure that buying the book cost a fortune too because everything was handwritten. The printing press its self looked pretty gruesome too though... all those little letters put in the mirror reflection way so that it stamps out like normal text? Oh and you also have to put your back into it to make sure that it stamps out justtt right.

3. How big the Berkeley selection of ancient artifacts really is. So maybe we didn't see the WHOLE scope of the library, but we did get a nice breath of it. I can't imagine what else is in store. WE got the biggest papyrus collection... IN THE WORLD. That's just amazing... and all of it is up for us to look at and right next door to the Doe Library/Dwinelle.

Cell it!

5 conversations

Sister: "What'd you call me for?"

Older Sister: "I'm bored, what's up"

Good Friend: "When do you want dinner?"

Friend from High School (goes to East Coast): "CATHY WANG, I MISS YOU!"

Friend: "Hey, are you free?"

The last 5 conversations I had, with the except of one, didn't really address my name, but instead got straight to the point. My sister's are pretty frank, and don't put any formality into our phone conversations because we all find it unnecessary. We're all so comfortable with each other that a formal greeting is not expected. Same thing with friends. Since we've all programmed each other into our phones, we're pretty sure that we didn't misdial and have the right person. Since it's generally expected that only the person with the number picks up (assuming it's a cell phone) then the caller doesn't have to go through the trouble of having someone else in the family pick up, as would happen with a land line. Cell phones, in terms of etiquette is concerned, is even less formal than the landlines because you know (or assume you know) the person who is going to pick up.

This habit seems to be acceptable, up until you misdial and intend to call one person, but end up calling another. Quite unfortunate. In that case, you look-er sound- completely dysfunctional because you expected someone to pick up, so you commence with the conversation, much to the other person's surprise and confusion. Happens to me on phones less often than it does on AIM, but it's still a habit I'm trying to kick.

Texting is bad news bears. I used to text all the time until one day I went over by a lot... and I mean a lot... and my parents officially canceled my plan for the rest of my life. Sigh. When I used to text, I texted in class, out of class, all the time! Whenever you need a quick question answered or you want to make plans, but can't or dont feel like talking, then texting is the way to go. Texting can also be seen as more fun because you respond on your own accord and have time to think about what you want to say instead of having the time restraints of an actual conversation.

Blog Your Heart Out

Let's start with blogging since it seem the most relevant. I don't blog aside from this class, although I used to when I was in middle school nearly every day on my Xanga. Xanga was the cool thing and I remember there was a point when my parents had blogs because it was "all the rage." I wrote about pretty trivial things, what I did in each period, what I did after school, sometimes a family vacation every now and then, but overall it was just not that exciting. There came a point when I actually shut down my Xanga and deleted all my posts (which I regret now) because I thought it was absolutely pointless. A little pointless, maybe, but absolutely? In retrospect, no. Blogging allowed me to type about what was important and express my feelings and even though it was poorly written, it still had something somewhere.

It's like when I look back at my old diary in middle school. Completely pointless and it actually makes me feel super lame for writing it all, but hey, that's the stuff that I found important in middle school. So in a sense, blogging preserves my feelings or emotions at the time and because it's written down (literally or digitally) I still have access to it to reflect on my past and really see how much I've grown.

But let's be perfectly honest here, I do have "secret" blog (not so secret anymore now that I posted this!). It's not really about me and my day to day things, but I write down in the blog nice things that people have done throughout the day so that I can remember the little things. Sounds super corny, but I think that it's nice to remember the seemingly insignificant things that ultimately contribute to the happiness of our days.

So enough about blogging, onto Wikipedia. Wikipedia is a god (citation needed) and I personally love using it. Sure, I've found some errors along the way, but I also help edit it so that it is even better. Wikipedia is being put into better hands now that it has gained more credibility and widespread use. My friend recently told me that some of the Physics GSIs at Cal are the ones who edit the Physics pages to make it more in depth or to correct facts. Cal Graduate students editing the Wikipedia pages so that I can understand the basic concepts of the String Theory... huh. Sounds good to me!

Finally, Youtube. I don't really have a huge fascination with YouTube as do many of my peers. I have watched many music videos, seen funny clips of shows, and even watched movies, but I wouldn't say I'm addicted to YouTube. It's a nice website to share videos and such, but for me, whenever I do use YouTube, I am looking for a specific video that I want to watch, whereas others use it to find videos they didn't know existed. I suppose it boils down to personal preference so there's no real right or wrong way to use YouTube.