It was great to see Milwaukee. It's an industrial city with enough diversity of industries that some are still functioning, plus financial and other business anchors. So after using Detroit as our point of reference, it had vitality and life. As our chaperone later put it: "Milwaukee surprised me. It's a city!"
- I went into the Art Museum. I didn't pay to see exhibits: it was late, and I forgot to check for a student price. But the building spoke to me; its attempt to evoke a nautical theme worked, and I felt at home in a beautiful, meaningful space. One of those rare situations where the abstract language and aims of architecture make sense to me.
- There's a Wisconsin state requirement that anything built on lake fill (presumably meaning Great Lakes) must be public. Privately operated museums like the above are fine. This is a wonderful policy, even if it causes some trouble to park authorities: Usually, a parks department will raise some of its funds through concession rentals. However, private restaurants that might financially save the county park system are unlikely to pass legal muster.
- Scott Walker used to be County Executive of the County of Milwaukee. This is part of the reason why Milwaukee County Transit System routes have been cut to the bone.
- A tour of the MCTS maintenance facility was a visual feast. These mechanics are masters of their trade. Someday I'll download the photos; I have one of a bus painting bay that looks like something out of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Beforehand there was a brief presentation, which was momentarily interrupted by a Groupwise notification: I had forgotten how much I hate that product suite. In any case, MCTS is operated by an independent for-profit entity, Milwaukee Transit Services. To hear MTS tell it, this arrangement was not intended as privatization in the current meaning of the word, but as a mechanism for shielding the operations of the transit system from county politics.
- The story of the Milwaukee streetcar, including its funding, jurisdiction, initial planned size, and even impact on underground utilities, will have to wait for another day.
- Oh—and it was fabulous to be walking down the street with some classmates, spot an information booth handing out transit maps, and instead of being ostracized for slowing down the group, I STARTED A STAMPEDE for everyone to get their own. :-)
The week after Milwaukee, I happened upon a better way to organize my tasks. That is, for the first time in a while, I stopped trying to find a piece of software, and evaluate, and test, and adapt. Instead, I took out a sheet of paper to represent all reading and assignments due for the week. And it worked surprisingly well! By Thursday, I was feeling on top of things, and by Friday I was looking at possible research jobs and fellowships for next semester and starting to think about summer plans to pursue. I took that as a sign things were under control.
As writing assignments started piling up last week, I remembered why I both love and hate writing: weaving concepts together is fun, but I don't like leaving out the fascinating tidbits that aren't central to my argument. I can precisely shape a sentence to my liking, but structuring paragraphs and full essays into neat packages doesn't come naturally. And I can play and connect thoughts well, but that doesn't help one bit if I don't quite know what I want to say—or worse, if I know what I want to say, but can't locate a necessary citation.
An attempt to bang out a full draft of the legal Memo that's due this Thursday pushed back last week's schedule more than I would have liked. And finishing this morning's Theory paper took more dramatic efforts than it merited. However, as of this evening, I felt I could relax, just a little bit. I'll call that success.
Until next time --
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