Thursday, January 04, 2007

Have (temporary) laptop, can research.

The new/old laptop came this morning! So I am now reconnected to the world. After installing some necessary software, I went to the archives this afternoon to start taking pictures of the American Red Cross records. There is a lot of stuff, which is great!

The archives here are very different from the national archives in Ottawa. First off, here are a ton more people working here. In Ottawa, there are a few commissionaires, and then a very few scattered reference staff who are publicly visible. And that's it. Most of the archivists have their offices in another buidling (which, I hear, they are none too thrilled about). But at the College Park archives, there are dozens of staff members, and they are everywhere! I think it's in large part because security here is so much tighter, and the rules of research are a little stricter too. The main research room itself is really nice, and overall I think it will be a good research month. And, I made a friend today while waiting for the bus home! She's a dissertator from the University of Michigan, and I think we are on for lunch in the cafeteria tomorrow. Excellent.

This weekend I have to seriously start shopping for a new laptop. Sigh. So far, it sounds like people like Toshiba. What do you think? LG is trying to convince me to get a Mac, but I don't know whether this is the best time to switch. I don't want to have conversion problems with my research notes! That would be disastrous.

I'll also do my best to get in some touristy things on the weekend . . . an enjoy the spring weather we're currently having! What ever happened to January? There are flowers in bloom here.

P.S. EC: Where are you?

P.P.S. See this.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Haha...awesome (the blog link)! I checked out this guy's profile and he has great taste in movies and music, it seems. Total soul-mate material! ;)

Anonymous said...

yay jp
im back in canada as of yesterday... and after nearly 12 hours of flying, hopped onto the 630 train to montreal to spend the weekend with my family.come back soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!! happy new year!!

HomeImprovementNinja said...

Welcome to DC.

Anonymous said...

Hey JP,

I would get a mac. I got one on my first year and never looked back. It has also been very good for my research since there are lots of nifty little software that are only available for mac (like Bookends, a bibliography database that is WAY better than Endnote).

I agree that you are at a delicate point to switch systems but depending on what you use, the pains can be minimized. What kind of software do you use? You probably went through all of that with HD, but I just thought I would drop in my two-cents...