catching my breath

Been really busy. I went to Philly to see Mr Brown. Love Philly. Beautiful street art, great local culture. I also loved Eva Teng's very nuanced view of what elitism means. She said "you go overseas not to achieve what they wanted you to achieve, but really to see the fragility of life, which Singapore tries so hard to hide." Then barely 24 hours after I got back from Philly, I drove to NYC for another interview. Also did research at the New York Public Library. Basically my summer's been secured. It's going to be filled with a lot of publicity work, and neuroscience textbooks and mental health guidebooks, and some expensive coffee table books. I'm also applying for random freelance gigs over the next week or so, maybe weekend stints at Shakespeare and Co.? or McNally Robinson? for the extra $$?

My story on open-access made the front page of the Sun, and was picked up by a Johannesburg list serve. It's basically a story about congressional bills and their effect on research. It gives me the greatest joy to be able to write a story and mention the name, "Barack Obama" in it, and to know that this story rides on--not to be pretentious, but truly--a moment of ambivalent transition.

Cornell Librarians Protest Bill Closing Access to NIH Research
March 30, 2009
By Dawn Lim
This month, President Barack Obama signed into law a bill that would make the National Institutes of Health public access policy permanent, signaling a move towards greater transparency in academia. Under this policy, NIH-funded research, including work by Cornell faculty, will be publicly available. However, another bill introduced in Congress last month seeks to reverse this public access policy and has prompted Cornell’s librarians to take action. [...]