student activism is alive and well in Ithaca

I don't go to Cornell anymore, but I take a bus through campus twice a day, and take shameless advantage of the public access computer labs. So I maintain a passing interest in what's going on there.

Apparently the university wants to build a new parking lot somewhere near West Campus, to go along with the new dorms they've been putting up. This strikes me as a perfectly sensible thing to do, especially since West Campus has had a chronic parking shortage for decades. (The really big lots are way the hell out by the vet school, and up on North Campus.) However, they want to cut down a tract of forest land to do so. And people are upset.

There have been protestors outside Day Hall for the past week, and yesterday they apparently took possession of the university president's office for several hours, to the point where police were called in to get them out.

They seemed to be out this morning, but the cluster of tents and signs and twenty-some people was still outside Day Hall when the bus drove past.

Frankly, I don't really care who wins. I am massively apathetic about the whole thing, since I A) think it's a little weird to be so attached to one small stand of trees when you can get lost in forest areas about two miles from town, and B) don't have a car and don't really care about students who are so lazy they can't, y'know, walk the fifteen minutes up the slope into Central Campus, or catch a bus.

But hey, go protestors! It's great that you're actually making your presence known, even if I think you're a little silly.

student activism is alive and well in Ithaca

I don't go to Cornell anymore, but I take a bus through campus twice a day, and take shameless advantage of the public access computer labs. So I maintain a passing interest in what's going on there.

Apparently the university wants to build a new parking lot somewhere near West Campus, to go along with the new dorms they've been putting up. This strikes me as a perfectly sensible thing to do, especially since West Campus has had a chronic parking shortage for decades. (The really big lots are way the hell out by the vet school, and up on North Campus.) However, they want to cut down a tract of forest land to do so. And people are upset.

There have been protestors outside Day Hall for the past week, and yesterday they apparently took possession of the university president's office for several hours, to the point where police were called in to get them out.

They seemed to be out this morning, but the cluster of tents and signs and twenty-some people was still outside Day Hall when the bus drove past.

Frankly, I don't really care who wins. I am massively apathetic about the whole thing, since I A) think it's a little weird to be so attached to one small stand of trees when you can get lost in forest areas about two miles from town, and B) don't have a car and don't really care about students who are so lazy they can't, y'know, walk the fifteen minutes up the slope into Central Campus, or catch a bus.

But hey, go protestors! It's great that you're actually making your presence known, even if I think you're a little silly.

(no subject)

Oh. My. God.

I was falling asleep on my keyboard (cough-induced insomnia, don't ask), and I suddenly figured out why "Aphrodisia" isn't working and has been dead on the page. I am using the wrong style, the wrong narrative voice, the wrong tone... anyway, I know how to fix it!

It must be told first-person by Neville, as a series of case notes as his experiments go progressively more haywire. And yet melancholy underneath that. Except deadpan. Except not.

Oh, I'm not explaining this well. But it will work. I can hear his voice now! And it will work.

...

It's turning into a really bizarre hybrid of screwball comedy and massive angst, but it also includes Neville going into experimental potions research (having realized that all of his screwups actually do something, instead of being magically inert, he just has to keep detailed notes when he tosses random stuff into cauldrons and sooner or later he'll make something useful by accident), and Ginny running a mail order business (well, owl order, I guess) selling miniature Venomous Tentaculas as house pets/guardian plants. Protect your desk from irritating coworkers! Keep burglars out of the house! Etc.

...

Yes, I know I'm crazy.

(no subject)

Oh. My. God.

I was falling asleep on my keyboard (cough-induced insomnia, don't ask), and I suddenly figured out why "Aphrodisia" isn't working and has been dead on the page. I am using the wrong style, the wrong narrative voice, the wrong tone... anyway, I know how to fix it!

It must be told first-person by Neville, as a series of case notes as his experiments go progressively more haywire. And yet melancholy underneath that. Except deadpan. Except not.

Oh, I'm not explaining this well. But it will work. I can hear his voice now! And it will work.

...

It's turning into a really bizarre hybrid of screwball comedy and massive angst, but it also includes Neville going into experimental potions research (having realized that all of his screwups actually do something, instead of being magically inert, he just has to keep detailed notes when he tosses random stuff into cauldrons and sooner or later he'll make something useful by accident), and Ginny running a mail order business (well, owl order, I guess) selling miniature Venomous Tentaculas as house pets/guardian plants. Protect your desk from irritating coworkers! Keep burglars out of the house! Etc.

...

Yes, I know I'm crazy.