Cakes and Creepy Stacks

Last Thursday, Duke Libraries had an opening celebration for the completion of the renovations of the second, third and fourth floors of the portion of the Perkins Library building that was originally built in 1968. Those of you who remember the "creepy" stacks will have a hard time finding them now. You may still get lost, since the changes are a little disorienting, but you won't mind it nearly as much.

We celebrated with two beautiful cakes from Mad Hatter's, which is now owned by Saladelia. I got in between the cake and a large knife in order to share this photo with you. I actually didn't try either the strawberry or the chocolate cake, but I heard that they were very good. That's right, I found photographing them more satisfying than the idea of actually eating them. There's something a little sick about that, I think.

Sssh! You're in a Library!

Earlier this week, Duke Libraries and the Information Science and Information Studies (ISIS) program invited harried students to come to one of the classrooms in the library and play video games. Rock Band, games on the Wii and who knows what else they were playing were far from the staid and sober associations most people have when they think of any library. It was loud.

We had four projectors going simultaneously and they were put to good use. Unlike me, the students knew what they were doing. Before the start of the event, I tried using a Wii for the first time and was amazed at how much fun it was for a first time user. I last seriously played video games when my family's Atari 2600 was popular. I still tend to like the idea of shooting up two dimensional blocks of color rather than some of the super-realistic-violent games, but that's a rant for another evening.

You can read a more thorough post about Game Night on the Library Hacks blog.

Duke Plays and Serves Sorbets

Yesterday, at the weekly Visualization Forum, Jeremy Block gave an interesting talk on biochemistry modeling using the DiVE, the "cave" or virtual environment cube that has images projected on all six sides. We had penne pasta with eggplant and great desserts, so it would have been enjoyable regardless.

Last night I met AE, KD and JH at Chai's, followed by Shade Tree Coffee. We had a lot of fun and celebrated JH's two job offers. He accepted both of them!

After that, I went to Duke Plays, a huge party that was an effort by two Duke seniors to provide alternatives to lacrossesque drunken off-campus debauchery. The huge party (and I do mean huge) was hosted in the first floors of the two library buildings. As far as locations, they could not have picked one that was more convenient. I really liked being able to lock my heavy leather coat and purse in my office. The party was open to faculty, staff and alumni and since I qualified on two counts and am even library staff, I thought I should attend. I believe it was actually only the second alumni event that I have attended since graduating seven years ago.

The food they served was absolutely incredible. It was all dessert hors d'oeuvres and was all delivered by by roaming people with serving trays. Again, it could not have been more convenient. They served mini-chocolate éclairs, weird little pies with a cherry in the middle, mini-creme brules, mini-white chocolate thingies, chocolate dipped cheesecake on a stick, samosa-like pastries containing warm peanut butter and jelly, canolis, pineapple mousse with whipped creme and pistachios, and more. The two best things were individual spoons filled with orange honey sorbet and skewers with balls of melon and pineapple dipped in honey and chopped mint. Wow. They also had lime sorbet, but I never ended up getting a scoop of that. I got three scoops of the the orange, due to AT's help, for which I am very thankful.

It's a good thing they had the roaming serving platters, because it was simply impossible to move once the party got going. I would guess that there were at the very least a thousand people there, if not more. I look forward to hearing the official estimates. It was a semiformal occasion and most of the attendees dressed up quite a bit. The library was almost completely transformed into a glitzy nightclub. There were four different bars, colored spotlights and exhibits depicting recreational activities of Duke students since the beginning of time. There were two bands, Katharine Whalen of the Squirrel Nut Zippers and Pulsar Triyo, both of which I inadvertently managed to avoid for the most part. I spent the majority of the time talking to LA and YB safely between two bookcases. I also got to chat with with several other co-workers, too. I even had a couple of very brief encounters with actual undergraduates, which were entertaining.

Was it a success? By most measures, absolutely! I couldn't have been happier with the food and that is, of course, my main criterion of judgment. I had a great time. Alcohol, however, was served and I certainly witnessed some things near the end of the party that suggested to me that not all were partying in the spirit in which it was intended.

Today, I saw part of West Side Story. In the middle, it suddenly started freezing up. It would just lurch along. It eventually became ridiculous enough such that we gave up. It's possible that my DVD player is particularly sensitive, because I suspect it's not a particularly good one. It came free with my television, after all. Believe it or not, but I think that this is the only (albeit partial) live action musical that I've ever seen other than Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Anti-Smear Campaign

Last night, my parents and I went to the Thai Cafe for the first time in a while. I saw and talked to FW briefly. It continues to be a restaurant where I see people I know almost every time I go. I was happy to have a cup of spicy coconut soup and an order of Thai Cafe Baskets all to my self.

Fortunately, I also had a leftover basil roll to take with me for lunch today. I didn't have much time to eat, because I went to a yoga workshop from noon to 1pm. It was billed as Office Yoga, so I thought it would be perfect and it was just what I hoped it would be. All the exercises were meant to be done while sitting down at one's desk. I'd barely been exposed to yoga at all, except for some exercises that RB would do in mid conversation when we were in college, so this was a nice introduction. The library has all kinds of wild workshops, lectures and discussions all the time. It's one of the many things that makes it great place to work.

Tonight my dad and I went to Eastern Lights for dinner. We shared roast pork with green onion, shrimp with lobster sauce and an order of potstickers. It was all delicious and we had plenty of leftovers to take home to my mom.

Thanks to AE, I discovered that Fisher has lots of pens that are way too cool. I've really enjoyed my Swiss Army pen. It writes so much better than any other ballpoint that I've had. Roller balls and fountain pens don't work too well for me, since I'm left handed. I don't appreciate getting ink smeared all over everything. I'm going to resist ordering a bullet pen for at least a little while, though.