It’s official, I’m an UMSL student. I just bought my first jump drive. Before I started back to school I had no idea what a jump drive was. If you don’t know, it’s a replacement for data storage devices of the past. Most UMSL computers lack any kind of disk drive. If you wish to bring your documents with you then you need a jump drive as that is the only port in the data storm. Essentially it is a plug that fits into/over a USB port. Nearly all UMSL computer monitors have a USB port in the side where you can plug your jump drive in. I’ve been emailing my papers back and forth between school and my home computer as attachments. This is silly. The jump drive is the solution.

If you know anything about the history of portable data storage you know that designs in the past have not occurred in a vacuum. Just as modern cars and trains (roads and railroad tracks) have design widths related to Roman chariots, the first home computer floppy disks were designed in reference to the size of a standard bar napkin, as that was the planning environment. The next generation of smaller and harder disks came to being with the left front shirt pocket in mind. And now we have the jump drive, which ostensibly could hang from your key chain. When you buy a jump drive, it often comes with a lanyard.

I could think of this year in my life as the year of the lanyard. Both of my teaching jobs require that I wear a picture ID on a lanyard while I am on campus. This is apparently all the rage in the security conscious realms of institutionalism. My jump drive is in a sense my UMSL ID on a lanyard. That’s interesting. The college lanyard is not one of identity but data storage, where information/knowledge is more important then personal representation. That’s a lit major for you, always reading for subtext.

On an unrelated note, I keep thinking that Jes and I have been a couple for four months. This is not the case. We were out together a few times before she went to Australia, but we were not together. She came to a few parties at the house both before and after Australia. She sent me a postcard. We weren’t going on dates until right after Vanessa’s birthday at the end of June. If we’re taking Bastille day (July 14th) as the shift from going on dates to dating then that puts us at barely two and half months. It’s interesting to feel as though it has been much longer.

We had the luxury in that first month of being mostly free of academic and professional responsibilities, so we were able to spend lots of time together. As our working lives intrude now, we are harder pressed to get that “us” time. I am not behind in my classes yet, but I could be if I don’t take this coming weekend and make a big push on long term, projects. She too has a number of other obligations that she needs to get the jump on. Speaking of jumping, jump drives, USB devices, and the devices of us, I need to unplug and jump off to class.