Warm weather, forgotten keys, soymilk

For the last couple of days, the weather has been warm enough for me to wear what I think of as my Fall and Spring jacket. It's a cotton outer shell with a light inner lining. Not wind or water proof, but good for dry days of moderate chill.

I'm not used to the change. When I left the archives this afternoon, I did so without my jacket, which was locked in. I thought about biking home without it since I still had my gloves (they were in my panniers). But when I got to the bike, I realized my key was in the jacket!

The library staff didn't have a key, but they suggested I call campus police and have them let me in. So I did, working on the jigsaw puzzle in the library while I waited. Soon enough, I had my jacket back. The officer who let me in asked me who he needed to talk to to get permission to dispose of some records.

See, in Wisconsin, state law requires that all public organizations offer their records to the historical society for evaluation prior to destruction. I don't think all of them actually do because we have some very annoying gaps. But it's a nice system when it work. I referred him to the archivist, who I'm sure can point him in the right direction.

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I opened my girl scout cookies yesterday! It's tough to budget them into my daily food intake, so I don't eat very many. But they're so yummy! I buy one box of thin mints and one of peanut butter patties and eat them together, the mint on top of the peanut butter. The taste and texture make me happy!

I added something new to my diet. When Lisa and I were at the Korean market last weekend (And it's a pretty neat market. For those who know Mitsuwa, it's almost like a Korean version of that.) a woman was offering samples of soymilk. I'd never tried it before, and I kind of liked it. The chocolate was good too, but I bought some of the unsweetened variety. It tastes alright, but for me it's more about the texture. And it has a pleasant, thick, smooth texture. It looks from the nutritional info like it's pretty healthy stuff, too. Lots of protein, which my brain runs well on. I've been drinking a cup in the morning.

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Tomorrow, I'm going to leave school at 2 instead of working at the archives. I'm going to inquire after some records at the Kenosha Public Safety Building, and then take my laptop over to the public library to do some research. And after that, since it's social Thursday, I will go and visit Serinthia and Todd across town for videos and/or board games.

How Cultural Anthropology Connects with Business

This is a the kind of business-oriented thing that anthropologists are extremely well suited to, and that many people would never think of them doing. Participant observation in a bar to help a company determine how people relate to its beer and how to improve that relationship. I remember seeing that GoGurt was the product of consultations with a cultural anthropologist as well.

It's not just non-industrialized people in far-flung corners of the world. It's very much important to first-world nations and first-world issues, and in fact, it can be very much a part of successful business.

An anthropologist walks into a bar....