Good things from today [S. Worthen

Ordering my very own copy of a reproduction of the 1603 Iconologia!
Finally going to the library and finding that every single article I went in to copy was even more exciting that I thought it would be.
Checking out an 1879 book which has never been read before. It's in gorgeous condition, it was unstickered (it pained me to cause it to be stickered with a barcode), and, most tellingly of all, all of its pages are uncut.
Running into one-time students of mine who told me how good a teacher I was when I taught them. Their enthusiasm makes me much happier about job applications.
Running into a colleague who also works on eyeglasses who not only wanted to send me a recent conference paper of his, but was eager to proofread the relevant dissertation chapter of mine as well!
Running into a friend from German class (which was several years past). She's lived in Germany since then, and gave me her business card so I could keep in touch to discuss Germany options.
Running into in_translation and learning she's particularly partial to good food.
A pleasant chat with a History department PhD student who was astonished to find a fellow historian checking out history material from the computer science/engineering library.
For the first time ever, receiving good, helpful service from the computer store/repair place. And after something like 8 months of waiting, I finally have a laptop again, because my laptop now has a working battery.
Seeing The Triplets of Belleville for the first time. I had no idea it was a movie about bicyling. What an impressively idea-filled, creative, funny fairy tale it is!

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Yay!!!!!

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Running into in_translation and learning she's particularly partial to good food.

This point sort of struck me as funny. What did you mean exactly? Cause really, isn't everyone particularly partial to good food? As far as I know, no one ever says "Hmm, tonight I want to eat something that tastes like crap!"

It's just that we all have different opinions on what constitutes 'good food'. :P

I didn't word that well. What she actually said was that she was a closet foodie. Of course everyone likes good food, but some people are willing to go further out of their way for it than others. That's more what I meant. (Except now I'm looking at that sentence and wondering what other nuances of obviousness I'm missing in it as well. Do let me know!)

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Checking out an 1879 book which has never been read before. It's in gorgeous condition, it was unstickered (it pained me to cause it to be stickered with a barcode), and, most tellingly of all, all of its pages are uncut.

These old books smell good too, like leather and all those bad Victorian acids that probably aged factory workers before their time. Those books have pages that are all stiff and taut, pressed on the shelf for so long. And you page through thinking, There's a good chance this hasn't been opened since Britain had a real empire.

Ahh. It's a beautiful thing.

I've added you to my friends list, because (a) you're one of Isabel's friends, (b) I'm also interested in history of technology, and (c) my father, and his father, were spectacle makers. Three good reasons, wouldn't you say? Good luck with your research!

cheers,
Iain

Thank you for letting me know. What kind of spectacle makers were your father and grandfather? Designers? Manufacturers? Spectacle-shop runners?

Thank you also for the good wishes!

optometrists in fact - it was a bit of a family business in south east London but my father moved out to Australia. My grandfather's father and his father were apparently London jewellers/watchmarkers so yeh, you can see a bit of a theme there, eh... We've all been members of the spectacle makers company, which I'm sure you know about!

S. Worthen | Weblog

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October