Speaking of security...

Alas, my room was lightly pillaged today -- All of my change and cash that was not on my person was taken (not much, maybe 15pounds). I suppose that, since I've never had anything stolen form me, even in really scummy hostels, I was just about due.

Anyway, I'm really not too worked up about it because I had my laptop locked up and the camera on me, so there really wasn't anything else of value with which to abscond. My roommate's stuff was unmolested (which is good for him, since he went from no luggage --> injured knee --> sore throat plague during the first week here; he needed the break).

I'm pretty sure it's a situation wherein a former employee has a key, and there have been a few other mysterious events that sort of raised my eyebrows: Someone hurled in an upstairs hallway, for example. It's easy to put together an imaginary profile of the guilty party.

So, the loss is reported but it's really not that big of a deal.

In other news, we went to the Sheldonian Theatre today, which is where modern matriculations and degree ceremonies are held. We had a series of Rare Book presentations that were, to be honest, a little dry but still lots of fun. The durability of older materials still impresses me, especially some 500-year-old Chinese texts that we were looking through which were as flexible and durable as a glossy magazine (and, in fact, the nature of that particular paper weave responds most favorably to being folded over in a manner which sort of makes one cringe at first sight). They'd also been stored in a camphor chest, which gave them a really strange smell. Cool stuff.

Some librarians looking at a 13th century bible. The print in this manuscript was tiny and it's extremely rare to find a bible of that era in such a "portable" format.

Here's some trivia for you: We're not wearing white gloves because it turns out that the loss of dexterity caused by wearing them tends to inflict more damage than skin oil ever could. In theory, when you see somebody at an auction house or wherever wearing gloves, they've been trained in their use.



From the cupola on top of the Sheldonian Theatre: The City of Dreaming Spires.