Phonographica Ad Nauseum
I haven't posted anything about Victrolas for a while, so I'm rectifying that.
The main motivation behind this post is that whoever is the author of victor-victrola.com (a most excellant site) has added a photograph of the Victrola 8-35. This is actually the model I would have if we lived in an ideal world. However, this model was in production for only about a year in 1928, and only about 10,400 were built. Whereas the model I got, the 4-40, they built over 100,000 of those. More common, therefore, less expensive.
The 8-35 was intended to be the successor of the former "flagship" Victrola model, the Credenza, or 8-30, which was made from 1925 til 1928. The 8-30 is big and heavy. It would overpower the living room in my small apartment. The 8-35 is lower because by that time Victor was self-conscious that they were not building an electronic phonograph. They thought if the turntable were waist-high instead of chest-high it would seem more like an electric phonograph.
So I've been writing about Victrolas with model numbers that start with an "8." My Victrola's model number starts with a "4." These were the two series of Orthophonic Victrola models. The "4" and the "8" designate the size of the horn. Bigger horn, bigger cabinet. I thought, because of issues of size and weight, I should look for something in the "4" series. Everything I'd read said they sounded just as good, just not quite as loud (and mine is plenty loud enough). Of all the models in the "4" series, the 4-3, the 4-7, the 4-20, and the 4-40, I thought the 4-40 was the best.

Tricep Improvement
I worked out yesterday evening, and I noticed significant improvement in the exercises I do for triceps, the tricep extension and the tricep dip. I used to think - as many do - that if you want big arms, you do lots of curls. I can't remember where I read whatever dispelled this myth for me. It was probably my workout Bible, Basic Training: A Fundamental Guide to Fitness for Men. This is an excellant book, written for people like me who were never very athletic. Wherever it was, I learned that if you want big arms, concentrating on curls for the biceps wasn't gonna cut it. The secret to big arms lies in the triceps. I guess to anybody who works out any this isn't an earth-shattering revelation, but it was very enlightening to me.

Bored, Bored, Bored
Two things have set the tone of the summer around here. First is the fact that the campus libraries are getting a new database system. In anticipation of this, the current databases have been pared back and we're limited as to what we can do. So is the technical services department where they open the mail (among other things). My work depends on their work, and they haven't been doing any work. Or, at least, they haven't been doing the sort of their work that produces work for me.
In other words, I have nothing to do.
The other thing that's going on here is they're renovating this building. The front part has been blocked off with sheet-rock partitions, and outside, they are taking the brick off the building. They're going to replace it with different brick. Makes perfect sense to me (not). Right now they're working where I usually go out to smoke, so it's noisy and dusty out there.
Speaking of smoking, it's nine o'clock and I have only had one cigarette today. Not that I'm trying to quit or anything, you understand.
A few weeks ago I added the lateral raise to my workout. I think this one move has made more difference than anything I've added to the basic circuit workout I follow. There used to be little pockets of flab right on the undersides of my armpits. Those are gone now. My back has also gotten tighter. It also seems to have pulled together other muscles I'd already been working on for awhile, so it seems like I've made a whole bunch of progress all of a sudden. Probably just me, though. I haven't gotten any of those comments from co-workers or acquaintances, "Hey, have you been working out?" Maybe that would be considered some sort of harassment.
Rob says that if I quit smoking I would probaly gain ten or fifteen pounds. That would be great if I could make sure the ten or fifteen pounds went in the right places. Not that I'm quitting smoking, you understand.
Rob has been traveling and camping alone since Sunday. It adds to the boredom here because usually we have e-mail conversations all day. He's supposed to be back later today.
I'm dreading doing the work for the cataloguing class. I was going to start on it last night, and then I left my notebook, with the xeroxes of articles I was going to read in it, on my desk at work. I realised this on the way home. My driver asked if he wanted me to turn back, and I said no, I'd go back and get it later myself. My driver said that if he were me, he'd take that as a sign that I wasn't supposed to do class work last night. And you know, I hate to admit that I acted on his advice, but it was very persuasive. I postponed class work another night.

School On Saturday
I'm taking a summer session course in the library science program. It was scheduled to meet five Saturdays in a row from nine am to four pm. It is named "Organisation of Information," and it turned out to just be cataloguing. I think it's worked out swimmingly that this is the class I ended up taking this summer. It's the only thing they offered that I needed. The instructor pared back his syllabus considerably, and we're only going to end up meeting three times instead of five. The class was scheduled to meet July 3, and the instructor cancelled that. We're also not meeting on the last scheduled day, July 24th,which is wonderful, because I was planning to leave for a week of vacation then. The schedule was changed at the last minute - it was supposed to run June 19th through July 17th, and three days before th term started they switched it to June 26th to July 24th. Nine people in my class never noticed the switch and showed up for class on June 19th, including the instructor. He gave that same lecture again for everyone else on June 26th. The people who'd showed up on the 19th were excused.
But like I said, it's great it worked out this way. Cataloguing is really tedious stuff. This way it's getting knocked out fast.