Congratulations Mimi! And Some Other Cool Ctuff

Emily passed the exam! She is now a certified archivist!!

(Or at least she will be once she pays her dues to the Academy of Certified Archivists. But still, well done!)

Huzzah!


In other news, the president is stupid (I know, that doesn't sound like news). He vetoed the expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), denying affordable health care to something like 4 million children.
Little did he know, though, that he was pissing off a certified archivist:

At a moveon.org rally yesterday in response to the veto outside the office of US Representative Jim McDermott, who supports the bill and will vote to overturn the veto, because he's not a jerk; is your congressman a jerk? I encourage you to call today and find out!



Nice hat, isn't it? Couldn't get the sign into the frame, but if you're wondering it reads "Billion$ for Iraq War; Veto for Kids' Healthcare?"
For photos from similar rallies across the country, click here.


Earlier in the day, I attended the Mass of the Holy Spirit, to ring in the new school year at SU, at Seattle's Church of the Immaculate Conception, just a short (though rather steep) walk up from campus.

The church, built in 1904, is apparently the oldest standing Catholic church in the city. It's pretty cool. For more information on it, try this story. Also pretty cool was that the faculty who attended wore all their regalia (or, in some of our cases, wore their regalia plus a rented robe; whatever, it still looked cool).

Information on the Mass can be viewed online. One item I particularly appreciated from the program:
For those who are Christians of other denominations and for those from the rich tapestry of faith traditions on our campus, we hope this celebration speaks on a variety of levels of our common need to connect with the Divine Mystery that is the Wellspring and Source of all we do. . . . All are welcome here. . . .


What else? Well.
There's a new Radiohead album, out next week as a download.

(Image from nytimes.com)
What's noteworthy about the release is that the band no longer has a contract with any recording company. They're releasing the album themselves from a website (http://www.inrainbows.com), and they're asking fans to choose their own price. A great idea, I think. At once circumventing the giant corporations and encouraging (though not forcing) listeners to actually be responsible and pay for music. That it's an appeal to conscience seems especially cool. Good story about it in the Times.


Finally, you may or may not have heard of the $100 laptop, but it's super cool.
An organization called One Laptop per Child (OLPC) has been working for a while on finding a way to get affordable computers to poor children. How cool is that?

Anyway, they cost more like $200, but they're about to go on sale. Check out http://laptop.org/.
For an excellent discussion of the project and the product, please enjoy the following video, by one of my heroes, David Pogue: