Snow

I think we've got our first snow of this year in Nov.

When I noticed the light fall of snow, I felt somewhat happy and couldn't help playing outside (alone...).

Today, I didn't notice that we got much snow until Kaori Momoi, a Japanese famous actress, said "White Christmas!!!" because I had kept in Angel Hall from noon to the evening to do my research, and then to attend to a screening of Faces of a Fig Tree (Ichijiku no kao), which was the first movie directed by Kaori Momoi. She actually came to Angel Hall yesterday and today, and answered some questions of the audience.

(A small tree in front of Angel Hall ↑)

She had a lot of positive energy! She is in her 50s, but for her, now is the midpoint of her life because she will live to be around 120 years old :)

Anyway, she seemed to enjoy the snow in A2 as well as me (and other ppl in A2, right?); that's great!

↑Diag was also covered with snow! ↑(Can you see the M!?)

Oh, by the way, although snow is beautiful, it is sometimes dangerous. A little while ago (2am), I was going home by the free-ride and our cab was almost hit by another car!
Fortunately, both cars was running very slowly because the road was icy; but if they had run faster, we would have got injured... I came near to missing tomorrow's lunch with my friends!! (← very important).

(↑Weather gadget in this morning - provided by Google )

Anyway, be careful when you drive, run, play outside, or whatever.

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Working on an Assignment...

I have an observation study assignment in which I look into a psychological difference between each gender through unobtrusive observation of more than 100 males and females enacting a certain behavior. I am looking for a possible behavior which I can unobtrusively observe, but every idea coming up to my mind doesn't seem to work well.

The first one I thought was "bathroom study," in which I observe if females are more likely to go to bathroom with their friends than males (something called "ture-shon" in Japanese: Ture = together, shon = pee). But I don't want to observe more than 100 people going for a pee in front of a bathroom for a long time (and it won't be unobtrusive but just strange).

The second idea was seeing if females tend to wear more clothes than males - but I cannot exactly know which person wears more than others because some people wear fat instead of clothes (and I have no idea what psychological difference this behavior represents).

The third one was lunch choice. On the basement of Michigan Union, Subway and Wendy's stand next to each other, so I observe which one males and females tend to choose and how long they need to make their decision. But... what's the difference between Subway and Wendy's!? Both of them are fast food and I can't see which menu each person chooses.

Finally, I found out...



I am thinking about the topic for 3 hours (OMG!)

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I hate fire alarms!!

I was just “evacuated” from UGL knowing that it was unnecessary. You know, I was evacuated at least 3 times in this week: from East Hall, Angel Hall, and then UGL. All because of fire alarms! I understand fire prevention is very important, but as long as I know, none of these buildings have suffered from a fire. I even wonder someone is playing a trick repeatedly.

When I was in Angel Hall, I was finishing up my paper. Today, I was on the 4th floor of UGL and had to use stairways to go down. What do I wanna say? That Sucks!!

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Shapiro Library

I’m in the computer lab on the 2nd floor of Shapiro Library right now, Saturday at 4am in the morning. This library has been almost my home: I stay here any time day or night.

This lab was practically full when I came here from the Fish Bowl (The Angell Hall computing site) around 12. But people began to leave around 1, and some of the people who were left started to fall asleep Now, 3 people, including me, are here although the other 2 are in a deep sleep... No matter how many pages I print out, the sound of printer does not wake them up!

While they are sleeping, I will write up this entry about Shapiro Library.

Shapiro Library is not really a stately building compared to Hatcher Graduate Library, which is located next to it, but Shapiro is more like a functional place for me. It's easy to access (in the center of the central campus), and open until 5am during the fall and winter semesters (cf. Library Hours page). The basement, the 1st floor, and the 2nd floor are "Shapiro Undergraduate Library," also called UGL, and the 3rd and the 4th floor are "Shapiro Science Library."

There are many study spaces in Shapiro; for me, the best place to study is the 4th floor since it is fairly quiet and tends to have some empty seats. Other floors are likely to be crowded and noisy, especially the 1st and the 2nd floor... Few days ago, I was in the back of the 1st floor and suffered from a man's snoring Conversely, when I study with my friends, we go to the 2nd floor because we feel freer to talk (in a low voice though).
For group meetings, there are some group study rooms on the 2nd floor, which are probably soundproof. These rooms are on a first-come first-serve basis and I often see people staying in one of the rooms alone. So... (I won't say anything further ).

When you don't bring your laptop and need to work on a computer, the computer lab on the 2nd floor has more than 50 PCs and Macs as well as some scanners and printers. But sometimes, this lab is full or occupied for a meeting. If this is the case, I look for a computer in this order:
3rd floor -> 1st floor -> basement. From my experience, this is the best order considering how many computers there are on each floor, how fast the computers work, and... how far they are from the stairs (this is important! I don't wanna walk!!)

Shapiro library offers a number of lovely services. One of them is what I have mentioned in the last post: free ride home service. From 2am-7am, you can use shared-ride taxi service for free. That's really easy! Just go to the circulation desk at the entrance and you will find a phone and the instructions. Once you call the number on the instructions using the phone provided, a Yellow Cab operator asks you to tell him a phone number (This is not your number! The instruction tells you which number you should tell him.) and the address you are going to.
Then, wait for a yellow car outside (broom-broom~~ )

In the last blog post, I said I used this service; actually, that was the first time for me to use it! I had lived so close by before that I didn't want the driver to bother to drive such a short distance... After using the service, however, I kind of regretted that I had not used it until then!

If you forget to bring your textbook when you need it, go to the circulation desk; they lend many textbooks for a limited period of time (4 hours or so). You can check the availability of the books on Mirlyn (library catalogue).


Finally, let me tell you about Askwith Media Library, which is located on the 2nd floor, to the left of the elevator. You can borrow media such as DVDs there for free! They have a great number of various films; before you go to Blockbuster and Hollywood Video, drop by or use Mirlyn to check if Askwith has what you want!

Link:
- Shapiro Undergraduate Library (UGL)
- Shapiro Science Library
- Shapiro Library floor maps with VISUALs -> Basement-2nd floor / 3rd-4th floor
- Hatcher-Shapiro Library Navigator page (call numbers, study space, etc...)
- Mirlyn (Library catalogue)

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Car in A2 !?

So much to write, so little time! Well, I probably did have some time, but I have been out of condition for a week or so…

So, for that reason, I will go back to the beginning of this week to tell you how inconvenient it is to have a car in A2!!!


On Monday night, I watched a DVD with my classmates (eating pizza), and because it took until late, my professor gave me (+ another classmate) a ride. It was a great help for me since it was raining, but I was surprised when I heard that she paid about $500 (I forgot exact price... It may be $600) to the Univ. for parking per year... In spite of her payment, the prof. sometimes has trouble finding a parking spot. I should have prepared for my next day's parking when I heard this...

On Tuesday morning, I went to school by my roommate’s car because I had been asked to pick her up at the airport after school (She had been in her country for some days). I parked the car in the center of the central campus, in front of Sushi.come, 10 minutes before my class started. I got out of the car and fed the parking meter. It said "15 minutes for a quarter," so I should get 90 minutes for $1.5 (6 quarters), right? Was I wrong? ...Yes, I was wrong! The meter seemed to be satisfied with only 2 quarters and stopped adding the minutes at 00:30 (30 minutes) even though I fed 4 or 5 quarters! After a while, I noticed that there was another sentence under "15 minutes for a quarter" saying "No more than 30 minutes" (What the heck ).

I however knew it was the only spot I could find around there. The class I was about to attend was very small and there would be a guest speaker on the day; it meant I would not be able to run back and forth between the classroom and the car to feed the meter every 30 minutes. I got the car started and left there to find a new spot: After all, I couldn't find it.

The big reason why I could not find a spot might be that I didn't usually drive, so I cannot insist that having a car in A2 (around our campus, to be exact) is a very bad idea. Since big grocery stores such as Kroger and Meijer are not so close to campus (20-30 minutes by bus from central campus), your grocery shopping must become easier with a car. HOWEVER, keep in mind that parking charges are not cheap around campus, including residential areas, and looking for a parking spot is so stressful!!

Then, what should we do? One of my friends comes to school by bus even though he has a car; it may be a smart choice. Or you don't even need a car (I don't ). The prof. said the Univ. didn't pay for faculties' parking because they recommended university members, including students and faculties, to use buses saying that we could ride both the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority (AATA) buses (city bus) and the U-M buses, aka the Blue Bus (operated by the Univ.), for free. I actually know some faculties (and many students) who do not own a car. Although taking the bus is not super convenient and comfortable, I think these bus services are good enough to be used in everyday life; JFYI, the Blue Bus operates every 5-20 minutes from about 7am to 3am (completely depends on the route: See the link for more details). In addition to the buses, the Univ. and the AATA offer free or inexpensive($5) shared-ride taxi services during nighttime hours (See this link). I used the free ride home service last night! I will write about these bus & taxi services in the near future

BTW, I got a call from my roommate just after I started to the airport saying that her friend would be able to pick her up

Link: ･ University of Michigan Parking & Transportation Services
･ Ann Arbor Transportation Authority (AATA)

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