So, I am stealing a moment between bill paying and dream making to say hello to the few faithful readers of Not Wholesome, formerly known as satoroams. My friend Patrice asked me the other day how I find the time to blog. Really the time rarely exists as a given although Chicago winter months and long periods of time away from your partner are certainly conducive factors (and why last month was so wholesomely full)

I have been back from NYC for a week now and I wish I was able to write about my time there when it was fresh in my mind. I had so many interesting conversations and some with folks I had only known online. I love that moment of transition from knowing someone only virtually or through their text and then having the opportunity to physically interface.

One of the most pleasant surprises was meeting with Yochai Benkler. Not only did I find someone who sports one of the coolest beards ever, but was quite taken by the fact that we were talking traditional anthropology (Mauss, Kula ring etc) in light of hackers and non-economic forms of production and exchange. Sigh, if he were only at U of C, I would try to get him on my dissertation committee. He offered me some good ideas for my work and now I am more or less happily writing away on them. All of his works are available online and for anyone interested in information enclosures, the commons, IP, and free software, do check out his work, it is pristine, sharp, solid, and well written.

Otherwise, I have been back in Chicago, burrowing busy like an underground mole not seeing much of the beautful spring weather we are having as I try to get a handle on a paper on hacker ethics that went from manageable 20 pages to more monstrous 35. I need to put a lid on it.

SOSHI met with the Provost and various Deans and unfortunately it went as expected, though some progress is being made as the issue is on the table, circulating the halls of U of C. Some of us wrote a letter of response which I will soon post to the blog.

Last night I was fortunate enough to be invited to a seder at the House of Golub. It was Micah’s first seder and it was like my 8th though my first in like 15+ years. I used to celebrate passover at my best friend’s house. Yael Reinhold, in San Juan, PR. They held a sort of extravagant event with 50 people spread across the rooftop of an old 16th century colonial building, lights twinkling and swaying against the light tradewinds and the twinkling stars. I loved the stories and feeling part of something larger, my parents even attending which made it extra nice (my dad is Jewish, my mother is not). The evening lasted for a long time from more somber prayer to festive eating. I liked staying up late, taking some illicit swigs of the wine, and running around the rooftop. I only had one bad experience, when I was 7 when their faifthful dog Linguini, a Hotdog breed of canine, decided to scratch me across my cheek leaving me with 4 deeply scratch marks across my face. Ouch is what I recall.

Well, I better retire before my face finds my keyboard as a comforting pillow in lieu of a much better pillow on my bed…