Social Life of Information

Over a year ago, I speculated on what I might miss most about Ann Arbor and enjoy most about Syracuse. Since I’ve had some time to mull it over, I’ve decided that an updated version is in order.

Let’s start with Ann Arbor. I still miss it quite a lot, but my predictions were off a little bit. Here’s my updated list of things that I miss about A2:

1. Convenience to family
2. Ann Arbor Flickr geeks, too many to name
3. Salons chez Jeff and all the cultured, interesting people who gather to toast and talk
4. the Michigan Theater
5. Silvio’s Organic Pizza
6. Mast’s Shoes
7. UM’s massive resources, especially the UMMA and the Askwith Media Library the library’s electronic subscriptions and enormous holdings
8. Proximity to Detroit: the DIA, Detroit Zoo, and Detroit Tigers A pedestrian downtown, walkable from residential areas. Well, we can (and do) walk downtown from our house in Syracuse, but it’s about 2 miles.
9. Ann Arbor parks Michigan lakes and camping. Especially Lake Michigan and camping with friends.
10. Familiarity Running into people I know every day. I don’t really know many people here at all.

So let’s move on to Syracuse. I’ve gotten used to saying I’m from New York, I’m comfortable enough in my surroundings, and I’ve had a chance to check out some of the local resources. Here’s my updated list of what I’ve most enjoyed about Syracuse, to date:

1. Affordable housing: Check and double check! I love owning a house.
2. Syracuse University; I am moving out there for the information school, so I had better like it! The iSchool at Syracuse University
3. Central New York’s great outdoors, especially the NY State Parks. Or at least Oakwood Cemetery, where we walk our dogs. We haven’t visited much of the state parks just yet, but the Adirondacks are only 2 hours away…
4. Community Darkrooms CSA CNY: fresh local organic veggies all summer and into the fall! The produce from Grindstone Farm and Wyllie Fox Farm is just fantastic.
5. Syracuse Real Food Cooperative, which makes wind energy available to the locals: I go here pretty much solely for the corn flakes. But the corn flakes are worth the trip. And I did sign up for wind energy.
6. Syracuse’s professional theater, opera, symphony, and modern art museum Dinosaur Bar-B-Que: a honky tonk rib joint. Simply superb.
7. Rosamond Gifford Zoo at Burnet Park: We’re volunteering to pour beer at the upcoming Brew at the Zoo event this weekend.
8. Syracuse Sky Chiefs, Toronto’s AAA baseball team: And they serve Dinosaur Bar-B-Que pulled pork sandwiches at the ballpark!
9. Less frenzied traffic than in Southeast Michigan: Well yes, the traffic is less frenzied. But Everett and I both agree, it’s a lot stupider. No net gain there.
10. Exploring