NJ State of the State

Governor Codey gave the New Jersey State of the State on January 11. It was exciting to be in the State House that day. It was the official start of the 2nd half of the 2004-2005 legislative session (2nd Tues. of January). I ended up watching the show in the conference room of my office, and we got lunch catered that day! The Governor mentioned 3 of the 4 things I'm working on (election reform, the Office of the Inspector General, and the Public Advocate), which was pretty exciting. He called for a voter-verified paper trail in the speech.

Yesterday, we celebrated the January office birthdays with cake from Michele Lorie's. Excellent cake. Next time I have a party with cake, I'm getting it there! I'm sitting at the conference table, eating a piece of chocolate cake, and Governor/Senate President Codey walks in. He is still the head of my office. It was the first time I've been introduced to a governor! Fun!

Why I Won't Hire You

Here's an excellent aritcle entitled "Why I Won't Hire You" with observations on the academic library hiring process.

Buy Blue

This website (BuyBlue.org) tells you the percentage of donations given by big corporations to Republicans and Democrats. Who knew Best Buy contributed 0% of their donations to Democrats? It's CompUSA for me! (They don't make any political contributions.)

ALA Boston - Midwinter

So, I was in Boston last week for the ALA Midwinter meeting. The first day I got up there, I drove in massive rain and fog. The next day, it was 55 degrees out, later dropping to about 20 degrees. I kicked off my Midwinter by attending the ALA Recruitment Forum, heading a discussion table on "Diversity Models from other Professions" (mostly my experience at the NAE). You wouldn't think it, but librarians are very similar to engineers.
1. Noone knows what they do.
2. There are all sorts of groups doing different diversity and recuitment efforts, but it is scattered and not coordinated.
3. They both rely (or should rely) on their communities to educate their members about opportunities in engineering and librarianship.
4. They should target youths.

At Midwinter, I hit the Exhibits and brought back a ton of books. Now, I just need to find the time to read some of them. I also attended meetings of the Washington Office, the Committee on Legislation, and the Intellectual Freedom Round Table. I also got to hang out and see Matt and Laura, and they were introduced to Wendy and Francis. We all had dinner together on Fri. night in Davis Square at a Tibetan Restaurant. Matt said that he'd had the best cashew chicken he'd ever had.

Boston Crier, w/ Pirates!

Cynthia sent me a cute New Zealand Pirate story! I'm at the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Boston right now, and I'm sitting in the Internet Cafe they have set up. I read Cynthia's webpage and burst into tears! Pirates are so cute!

Congratulations!

Juxtaposers, the band!

Bill's band, the Juxtaposers finally has a website! Woo hoo! If you are in Michigan, go see them! If you are in Chicago, get them to come do a gig there!

Soup Dumplings

Andrew's back in Australia now. He had a big family and friend sendoff on Saturday. It was a lot of fun, as are big families.

Now that I've finished my Harvard application, I can finally enjoy being back in New Jersey. So, one of the first things that we did was head to NY on Sunday to see Mike, Jeffrey, Regina, my brother. Michael Roston stopped by and met us for a bit too. Jeff has been in NYC for a week now for a conference for the American Symphony Orchestra League. He's been going to all sorts of concerts and events, like a concert with the Met Orchestra conducted by James Levine at Carnegie Hall. They got to talk with the conducter after the concert.

Meanwhile, Rich, Regina, Jeffrey and I were enjoying soup dumplings at Joe's Shanghai in Chinatown. Soup dumplings have been the rage in NY for a while. Shaped like regular circular based dumplings, they are instead filled with hot broth in addition to the pork filling. To eat, you must carefully remove your dumpling from the plate, and place on your soup spoon. Wait for it to cool down, and take a small nibble into the dumpling skin; simultaneously, sucking up the soup inside the dumpling before it dribbles all over it. Try it!

Afterwards, we walked around, visited the gigantic Whole Foods that Michael Roston calls the Whole Mahal after the Taj Mahal for its size. We headed back to Mike Vea's place to watch old Sex in the City episodes and order Papa John's pizza. My brother brought back some dessert, and we headed back to New Jersey. It was a nice day to just hang out with friends.

New Year, New Jersey

I had a great time back in Chicago, which I'll get back to later.

With the new year, I've started a new job! (Hooray!) I'm working at the Senate Majority Office of the New Jersey Legislature. It'll be an interesting time, and I'll get to work on a lot of interesting legislation and issues. So, if you're in Trenton, give me a call! We'll do lunch or I'll show you around the State House.