It's time to reveal my secret. For some reason I'm on the mailing list from the Chancellor's office so I receive all the mass emails meant for faculty/staff. Here's the latest:

UC Travel Policy Change for "Meals and Incidentals"


Effective April 19, 2002, the reimbursement allowance for "Meals and
Incidentals" has been revised. The minimum amount of time a traveler
must be away from home or headquarters in order to be eligible for
reimbursement for "Meals and Incidentals" has been increased from 10
to 12 hours. (Incidentals are typically tips and gratuities.) Here
are the new allowances:


Travel less than 12 hours = $0
Travel equal to or greater than 12 hours but less than 24 hours = $33
Travel equal to or greater than 24 hours but less than 30 days = $50
per day


Please remember that "Meals and Incidentals" is not a per diem.
Reimbursement is based on actual expenses and substantiating receipts
are strongly recommended. The full UC travel policy is available at
http://www.ucop.edu/ucophome/policies/bfb/g28toc.html.


State of California airfare contracts are now available to UC Berkeley
business travelers:


The Travel Office is pleased to announce that the State of California
airfare contracts are now available to UC Berkeley. Business
travelers can arrange travel between 263 city pairs at discounted
fares offered under contracts with Southwest and United Airlines. To
view fares, visit the State Travel Management Program website at
http://www.ofa.dgs.ca.gov/default.asp?mp=../services/airfare.asp


Since this is a State, not a UC, program, city pairs cannot be changed
or added. Prices shown are one-way. Fares are limited to business
travel only. Benefits of using the State airfare contracts include
low fares, no restrictions, and reservations that can be changed or
cancelled without penalty. Current State-negotiated rates are valid
from July 1, 2001, through June 30, 2002.


Tickets purchased under the State of California airfare contract are
issued by State-certified travel agencies. UC Berkeley business
travelers can contact Philip Martin Associates (PMA) by phone
(510-xxx-xxxx), fax (510-xxx-xxxx) or email (xx.xxxxx@xxx.net) to
make reservations. Once your reservation has been made, complete a
Central Travel Service (CTS) form
(http://fbs.berkeley.edu/forms/default.htm#travel) and fax it to PMA.
Remember to include the appropriate authorizing signature on the CTS
form since unsigned forms cannot be processed, and check the stated
itinerary for accuracy. Tickets can be issued the same day for CTS
forms received at PMA by 4:30 pm.


Campus travelers are encouraged to use State of California airfares
whenever possible. If the traveler or travel agency can locate a
lower airfare than the State-negotiated rate, and the traveler can
accept any restrictions that may be associated with the lower fare,
then the lower fare should be used.


Please don't hesitate to contact Travel Manager Joe Knowles with your
travel questions or comments.

Exciting, no?

CalStuff has this to say:

Diversity, sure. Although I bet that has a different context in Cuba. I'm even willing to grant Music, although you can do a lot better than Berkeley just in the Bay Area. But Medical Research? Berkeley has no medical research. It's kind of unusual that we don't; most large institutions of learning have a Med School. Berkeley has just about everything but one, which makes its absence kind've glaring.

Geez. If you go 20 minutes across the bay you will find yourself at UCSF, one of the highest-regarded Medical Schools in the country. Top-notch medical training and research goes on over there, and it is one of the earliest UC campuses. There's no reason to have a med school at Cal, because there is one IN SAN FRANCISCO and is part of the same University system. It's not much different then Johns Hopkins, where the Medical Center is a good 15+ minute drive through Baltimore from the college campus. The UC system (it really is just one big university, folks) has five top-notch med schools (SF, LA, SD, Irvine, and Davis), which I think is quite remarkable for a single public college system. But, regardless of that there is still lots of medical research going on right here at UC Berkeley. The School of Public Health is home to cutting-edge medical research and additional medical research is going on in the genetics and biology labs every day.

And folks, that's why I started this blog.=^)

PragLib's correspondent "Monsieur Z" reports that the Alcoholic Beverage Control is in town this week. Kip's was raided a couple days ago, and most of the bars in the campus area on pretty high-strung. The word is that if you're in a bar and underage (heaven forbid!) and two middle-aged black women come in who look extremely out of place in the college bars, leave immediately. Both for your sake and the sake of the proprietors. Trust me, it'll be better in the long run to cut your revelry short this week.

Many cop cars were outside Phi Kappa Tau at Piedmont/Channing tonight, right around 3:00AM. I wonder what's up.

Hey kids, here're some pictures from my trip down to San Luis Obispo over the weekend. Many of those people you see hail from Pleasanton, home to myself and our good friend Kevin. Please note the exponentially greater hotness of the people in SLO then those you see in Berkeley. Oh yeah, I'm the guy with the sunglasses and the blue Cal shirt under the brown and tan overshirt. Also, it may take a little bit longer than expected for the images to load the first time you view them, don't worry, they're worth it.


Margaritaville 2002

Beer bonging down the stairs

500+ people gathered at the SLO town Kappa Sigma house

Me and fraternity brother Joe representing ADPhi proudly

Joe after 4 hours of drinking, note the colorful scenery behind him

High school buddy Keith

For the ladies

The Pleasanton Crew(l to r: Lindsey, Keith, Scott, Me, Mike, Matt)

Me and Lindsey (btw, Lindsey lived next door to Kevin)

A little bit drunken

A little bit MORE drunken

Watching from on high

Try to match THIS crowd, Chi Psi

At the tap

It's been a long day

Two VERY red faces



Feel free to link to or use these pictures for whatever reason. If you do post them or link to them anywhere publicly, please give me photographer credits and link over here to PragLib. That's all that I ask.

Cheers.

Hm, first of all to ProgCal: Could you be any more self-serving?

Moving on:

The Problem With Berkeley

Now, I know that with a title like that you may be expecting something pretty straight forward, something I've talked about before: Berkeley students take themselves too seriously, leftist activists don't use rational thought, not everyone is as handsome as Dave. All of these are good points. But I'm really talking about more frivolous matters.

People here don't know how to have fun. I mean that in a very specific way. Everybody here can go out on the town and have fun, go dancing, hit up a party or two. But can anybody just have fun? Can any of you out there just pack up a bag and go hit the road for the weekend? Can you just get together with friends and drink some beer and (to use a dangerously outdated expression) shoot the shit?

Can you appreciate the value in cracking jokes about passersby while driving around town? Can you just sit at a coffee shop for hours on end and enjoy good company?

I know I'm projecting my own values as to what's "fun" onto others. So be it. Not enough people here in Berkeley can have just mindless, relaxing fun. There always has to be a purpose, a point, an agenda: a sense of humor is pointless unless it gets you somewhere.

Now this is going to sound like a smattering of stoner philosophy, but bear with me. What we do is essentially meaningless (in a cosmic sense, at the very least), so why not get out and enjoy yourselves? Go out and do something just because. Find meaning in a meaningless existence. Please. At least for my sake. It'll keep me sane.

Oh, and to my fellow bloggers out there: for the love of God, don't publicly analyze this post. It's just a random essay written at 1:45 in the morning. There might be something good in here that I said that perhaps you should take to heart. Otherwise, just ignore it. See you at the bars.

Here's to summer

Well, as of about 2:00 on May 20th, I've been a free man. I've scooted back to my hometown for a night to enjoy some homecooking and good company. I'll be back in Berkeley tomorrow afternoon for more or lest the rest of the summer. Here's what you can expect from PragLib this summer:

1. Intermittent posts - I plan to keep posting, but the nature of summer just may prevent any semblance of regularity.
2. Summer life - This'll be my first summer sticking around here, and it seems like it's going to be a really interesting time.
3. PragLib's Super California Tour - I've managed to find a job at which I don't have to work weekends, so expect to find me up and down all over this state. I'll post some shite up about what's going on in our fair land.
4. Virignia - I'll be in Virginia for a week this summer, I'll let you know how that goes.

Stay tuned, o h loyal readers, for a very good time. I'll try to get some Berkeley/SF Bay Area comment up too.

Have a good summer.

Cheers.