Platypus Tails

Good Omens

2011-05-19T20:14:00.001-05:00

In an effort to rid myself of the email address associated with this blog (because of spam issues, argh), I have moved Platypus Tails over to the blogger account associated with my new email account. Rah.

So from now on, visit me at jessiqatheplatypus.blogspot.com

Ciao!

All My Friends Are Dead by Avery Monsen and Jory John

2011-04-05T09:16:00.002-05:00

This is a small little book that I carried around in my purse for about three weeks so I could show it to everyone I met (I failed by not showing it to Erin or my boyfriend, but no one ever said I had a great memory). It's slightly morbid while being very funny. I really think I need to buy it and continue to carry it in my purse, just so that I have something to accost/annoy strangers with and so that I always have something handy to bring me a smile. Sounds like a good plan, yeah?

All My Friends Are Dead is a picture book featuring the dinosaur on the cover, an old man, a tree and an end table (not friends, after all), and others who find themselves alone in this world. It's macabre, sure, but sweet and funny at the same time. I absolutely love it.

Daddy and I agree that Death ought to have been speaking in all capital letters.* He loved the book. Because of its size, he wondered if I intended to read it to the chicklets at story-time. I said that most of the jokes would go right over their heads, so no.

The next day I showed the book to my mom and even she chuckled though the humor is a bit macabre and she doesn't tend to dig that sort of thing. Jenni of course loved it and was tempted to buy a copy she in the store a few days later.

I need to buy this book. Seriously. Also, I hold it responsible for making "Dangit" so prominent in my daily vocabulary.

* Reference to Terry Pratchett's Death, who is the best Death in literature as far as I am concerned. You also have to imagine that he speaks with Christoper Lee's voice.

Doctor Who

2011-04-05T09:09:00.000-05:00

Last night I watched the first half of the "Sensorites" episodes of Doctor Who. This is the first Doctor, William Hartnell. I mentioned this on Twitter and we got into a conversation about how there's a ton to work my way through if I continue to go in order like this. It may be years before I catch up with the current episodes. For this reason, one of my friends found the whole thing too intimidating. I suspect that if someone merely started with the new series (though this started several yeas ago, so it's no small feat either), they'd be okay in terms of understanding the canon. Love was also expressed for the Daleks and their reliably one-track mind. EXTERMINATE! Gotta love it.

Anyhooe, back to the episodes I was watching last night. Like the rest of these early episodes, the sets (aside from the TARDIS) seem to be made of cardboard. I love it. Sometimes the episodes are total crap, sometimes they're pretty good. They run the whole gamut, really. There are time when I think that the real reason I stick with it and watch these is just to hear the theme song at the beginning and end of every episode. Best theme song ever. Truth.

With a Little Help by Cory Doctorow

2011-03-20T18:33:00.001-05:00

[Note: I wrote this review while at work, mostly while listening to the book. As a result the tense varies between present and past. Whatever.]

I’m listening to this on audio. It was a free download and each story is read by a different performer. I listen to it while working in the back at the library. I must confess that since I’m at work while listening to this book, my attention is rarely focused properly upon the story, therefore I can listen to a story and not have any clue what it was about or who was in it. I have found that the reader has quite a lot to do with how well I pay attention to the story. The first one, meh. The Neil Gaiman-read story, “The Right Book,” caught my ear a bit, but the first one I *really* listened to was “Scroogled,” read by Wil Wheaton.

“Scroogled” is about what would happen if Google succumbed to evil. I’m not gonna lie, it made me second-guess my overwhelming reliance on Google products. The thought dies quickly of course, and I am currently writing this in Google Docs. So it goes.

“Human Readable” was very interesting. I have a feeling I would have understood it a bit more if I was listening to it in a place where I could give it more attention, like in the car rather than while working. Again, the reader may have had something to do with my interest. The first third is a love story and then the relationship ends when the woman chooses her career over her love life and moves to D.C. At that point the story follows her fight for getting a new law pushed through, an effort that puts her at odds with her ex. Very interesting how their relationship plays out throughout the course of the story. Also, there’s an Ewok.

I pretty much ignored “Liberation Spectrum” while working, but “Power Punctuation” was dead fun. It’s great and really fast-paced. The story is told from the point of view of a country bumpkin who finds himself moving up quickly within the corporate infrastructure though he doesn’t really understand what’s going on. The story is in the form of letters to his mom. I love his watch that gives him advice and feedback and tells him what he needs to do at work.

I had no idea what was happening in “Visit the Sins.” Something about being able to shut off while being awake and therefore not really being present. This is just the kind of story that would totally hold my interest if I weren’t busy doing actual work while listening to it. This happens all too often for this audiobook, sadly.

“Constitutional Crisis,” much like Felicia Day’s The Guild and some of Wil Wheaton’s blogs, makes me wish I actually knew a bit more about gaming. I never had a game system until about a year ago when I bought a Wii from a friend. It sits in the living-room mostly neglected unless I want to watch something on Netflix streaming. I didn’t play DnD growing up because I never knew anyone who did, though what I’ve learned about the game tells me that it’s totally something I would have been into in middle school. Totally.

“Pester Power” is another story that I only half listened to, yet I still managed to enjoy it. Same goes for “Chicken Little.” There was mention of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and a cartoon called “The Stupor Salesman.” This alone makes me dig the story, hahaha. As I picked up with the story the following Friday working in the back, I found that I gave it more attention. This may be because I was working on more or less mindless tasks at my desk enabling me to give more attention to anything I may be listening to.

“Epoch,” is flying right over my head as I read my email. The biggest thought on my brain is how hungry I am, making it hard to focus on anything else really. Thankfully, my lunch hour begins in fifteen minutes. Big Mac Spam sounds wonderfully awesome in that wonderfully frightening sort of way.

“I’m Only In It for the Money” is the afterword by Doctorow’s agent. I dig honesty in chapter/afterword titles. He talks about publishing economics and how it’s total bullshit for the most part. He also hopes that the model Doctorow uses will be helpful for the other authors he represents as well as for Cory in the future.

Parental Advisory

2011-03-20T18:20:00.001-05:00

My parents came for a brief visit this weekend. It's the first time they stayed with me since I moved out over two years ago. Mom stayed with me once when I was living in the Heights, but never the both of them together. It was a fun time. Daddy noted that they really should have done this sooner. Duh.

We did a little bit o' shopping and then had dinner. The service was a bit slow, but the waitress got a good tip anyhow. (This always happens when I'm in charge of the tip: I tip a regular 20% even if it's undeserved and I always overtip cabbies because I have no idea what's appropriate for them. Oh well.) We came back here after that and watched a movie. Then Mom went off to bed and Daddy and I played cards--I clobbered him. We watched another movie and headed off to bed ourselves.

In the morning we had breakfast and chatted and all that. Another game was played and Daddy lost with an even larger score than the night before. Poor Daddy.

Then they left.

I finished reading a book.

Then I got bored.

So it goes.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

2011-03-15T22:00:00.001-05:00

This isn't the sort of book I would ordinarily pick up but I noticed its popularity at the library and decided to make it our February book club selection. When I told the group that we would be reading it, one of the ladies got quite excited. She had already read it, and though she didn't plan on re-reading it, she very much looked forward to our discussion the following month.

I soon understood why. As I said, I would never have picked this book up on my own, but listening to the audiobook in my car had me wishing for longer stoplights and surreptitiously sitting an extra minute or two in the car before turning off the engine.

More people turned up for this book club than for those in the past months. Maybe it had something to do with the weather. Maybe it had something to do with word of mouth. I know of at least one regular who got a new lady to come based on the awesomeness of this book. Most of these women experienced desegregation and the Civil Rights movement in their own lives. Granted, we're in Illinois, so nothing was so structured as in the South, with the Jim Crow laws. The women shared stories from their own lives and the discussion was indeed quite lively. I easily recommend this book to anyone, especially those like me for which it may be a bit out of the comfort zone.

P.S. "Watch out for the chocolate pie." -- The only input the woman who had already read it gave to those of us who hadn't read it yet. Hahaha.

Curling up With a Good Book

2011-03-11T12:52:00.002-06:00

Today's Bug Comic is me all over. I mean, who can sit in a normal position and rad comfortably? No one, that's who.

Linky-link

Scat by Carl Hiaasen

2011-03-10T09:32:00.002-06:00

I read this book in order to book talk it to the fifth graders at my school. It kind of reminds me of something Michael Crichton might write if he were an environmentalist what with the devious dealings of a corporation, but this book is funnier than Crichton's work. I liked the book and will probably check out more Hiaasen books in the future. Perhaps I'll even learn how to spell his name correctly on the first try. Back to the book talk--I never ended up giving it, somehow or another, but I wrote up some notes to read to the students anyhow:

The book opens in a classroom with a really tough and intimidating teacher, Mrs. Starch, giving a student named Duane (whose nickname is Smoke) a hard time about not having his homework done. The next day the class goes on a field trip to the Black Vine Swamp. Smoke doesn’t show up for the field trip. Smoke’s dad is an out-of-work piano player with a vicious pet Macaw that speaks in three different languages. Nick, a kid whose dad has been posted to combat duty in Iraq, is excited about the field trip and hopes to see an endangered panther while they’re in the swamp. He hears a scream, which he’s certain is a panther and then a fire breaks out. The students are rushed out of the swamp, away from danger, but Mrs. Starch goes back in for a girl’s inhaler. She never comes back out. Days later the police and fire marshal are still looking for her as well as whoever started the fire in the first place. Smoke is the prime suspect but there’s more going on than a simple case of arson. There’s an oil company drilling where it shouldn’t and a stranger who seems to be causing trouble of his own in the swamp. This book is both funny and suspenseful and definitely a lot of fun.

Time Traveleres Never Die by Jack McDevitt

2011-03-04T17:39:00.002-06:00

This book falls squarely into one of my greatest areas of interest--time travel. I think perhaps I watched Back to the Future too many times growing up, but not nearly as often as I watched Indiana Jones. Though I don’t seek out stories with Indy, I seek out stories with time travel quite frequently. Many of my fantasies and daydreams involve time travel (okay Indiana Jones too): Where and when I would travel? Who I would meet? How would I affect a change on history? A great icebreaker is to ask what person/band from the past would you like to see perform live? The resulting answer can lead to hours of conversation. Trust me.

Actually, I started this book on audio in my car sometime last summer and didn’t like the reader, so I stopped after just one disc. A few months later my dad bought the book (though I hadn’t mentioned it to him) and I recently borrowed it from him after he had finished reading it. Before I had begun the book, we got into a conversation about time travel (which is normal for us) and he used an example from the book about the father’s assistant having a heart attack, which was Time/The Universe’s way of preventing her from creating a paradox.

I have this theory about time travel, in which paradoxes cannot exist because if a person goes back in time, whatever he does has already happened by the time he steps into his time machine (or uses whatever mechanism) to travel back in time. In other words, his actions in the past merely fulfil history; they cannot skew it. A great example of this is in the first Terminator movie: Kyle Reese’s best friend is John Connor and Connor sends Reese back in time to protect his mother before he is born. This has to happen. It could not be anyone other than Reese. Reese has to be the one to protect Sarah Connor because he has to conceive John Connor with her in the past. Had he not done so, John Connor would never have existed. Reese fulfilled history in Terminator by traveling back in time. Jack McDevitt appears to subscribe to a similar theory of time travel in this book, though the characters do not initially understand this paradox-preventing view of time travel.

Shel and Dave are the two main characters. Shel’s dad has disappeared and Shel soon learns that he has gotten lost somewhere (somewhen?) in time. So they set out looking for Shel’s dad using the device of his design. The device is small, looking like a Q-pod, which I assume is similar to an iPod. No bulky TARDIS or DeLorean for these guys. This makes it easier to hide their method of travel from the people they encounter on their travels, which proves very very handy on some occasions. (The encounter with Cesare Borgia comes to mind.)

At some point the characters start just having fun with it. They can travel anywhere at any time and they take advantage of this, usually together, but occasionally on their own. At one point they settle down in their seats at the Globe Theatre and chat with the fellow sitting next to them and the play starts. Hamlet. Opening night. I shut the book at this moment and emailed my dad. I was just so jealous of Shel and Dave that I had to stop reading for a bit. Daddy told me that he had a different reaction: he just got more and more eager, his mind racing to what he would do if he had access to such an extraordinary device. Of course, this is what I’ve been doing all my life, but I remained in wonder of the descriptions in this book. There’s a scene at the death of Socrates which actually brought a tear or two to my eyes. I read Plato’s dialogue on the matter in college but I guarantee you I was never so moved by it as I was by the same story here. (Which is slightly blasphemous, I admit.)

As should be obvious by now, I highly recommend this book. It’s not only clever, it’s very well written and just a plain old damn good book. Read it!

Why Can't Dreams Come True? Huh?

2011-02-26T07:57:00.001-06:00

This morning I woke up from a lovely dream in which The X-Files was back on the air. It wasn't the same, exactly. It was sort of a spin-off, but it still had Mulder and Scully in it, so all good. The show had the unique effect of getting my mom interested in the original series, which I considered a surprising and major plus. (Though in real life, it's the boyfriend who I've gotten hooked on the show. Go me.) I didn't get to watch it and only heard of it after an episode or two had already aired, due in large part to the fact that I don't have cable anymore. I was all set to look it up and try to find it online or through the library only to wake up and discover it wasn't real. Dammit.

I think I'm going to go sulk in the shower now.

Stardust: Being a Romance Within the Realms of Faerie by Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess

2011-02-21T19:43:00.001-06:00

I saw the movie a few years ago, so I know the story, but it was long enough ago that I don't fully remember the story, making this reading quite fresh. My library has a copy that isn't illustrated; I'm very glad I decided to get this version instead. Funnily enough, I thought I was ordering a graphic novel and was slightly surprised when I found this. The illustrations fit the story perfectly: This is how it is meant to be read. This, after all, is a copy based on the original magazines.

The story is a fairy tale in every sense of the phrase. It contains fairies and fighting and true love (and the youthful ideal of love) and witches and mysterious strangers and darkness and the light and potty humor and wistful humor and sly humor and intrigue and lies and assassins and fate and magic and all-around fun. Gaiman makes writing look easy, deceptively so. I read this and thought, I could do this. Though I know that's not true. It takes true talent to make word dance and play as he does, and I have never possessed such a talent. The most I can do is make word give an occasional twirl or hop. Nothing much exciting.

I have yet to rewash the film, but I know that Robert De Niro's character was altered a bit and his name changed. Nothing that ruins the story though. I see on IMDb that Neil Gaiman did not write the screenplay, yet the alteration to De Niro's character feels like something Gaiman might have done himself and likely enjoyed in the movie.

I finished the book a few weeks ago during a snowstorm and it left me feeling content in the way that all good books do. The story had a satisfying ending and kept me spellbound as I was snowbound. And really, what more can anyone ask of a book?

Well what do ya know

2011-02-07T12:38:00.001-06:00

This is just a random post since I just downloaded the blogger app for my phone. I have to test it out, you understand. Later today I plan on writing a proper blog on a book I finished last week, but I've got a lot on the docket for today, so we'll just see what I actually get done.

I get the best spam.

2011-02-01T13:20:00.001-06:00

I removed email addresses and last names. It also came with a .rar file which I have the good sense not to open. But the text was just way too good not to share. Hahaha.

from shem

reply-to shem

to me

date Sat, Jan 29, 2011 at 6:47 PM

subject himy little woman

good day my love I've done as you asked and all passed.. I just sent everything for you and your aunt.

immediately made a copy of the forms and put it in a safe location.. I do not want that anyone else take your money. I am attaching

a file in which you put all the papers. Western union addressed to you and your aunt. + Document + Declaration of the bank bank. Probably you will need it.

I hope you all have time to get. I wish you good mood my Russian Sweet Girl. )

> Date: Wen, 29 January 2011 13:28:01 + 0300

> From: l

> To: g

> Subject: ???

> holla m y beast men John.

> I am very glad that you answered me. I worried.

> Now I am calm. My love if you gave me your money, then why do not you gave me information about the transfer of money? How do

> I get money without information.

> I ask you now

> send me information about the transfer of money

> to my name and the name of

> my aunt. I should

> have time to get your money today. I await your

> response.

> PSPSPS you can give me a copy of the documents

> western union. It will be very convenient.

> dear I am waiting for your news..

Est_s a un clic para ganar premios con Windows Live

Nod 32 Eset treking 29-01-2011 19-55 Copiriting

>> good evening my PussI MUSSI. ) I love you too.!

>> I beg you not to worry. You yourself told me that I gave you the money as soon as possible. I

>> decided to do everything as you requested. I went to western union and began to make a

>> transfer of money for you. After I filled out the paper to send money. Began some problems !

>> manager in the bank started asking me about who I am sending so much money. Why. What

>> is the purpose of transferring money. I began to worry. I asked him why he is asking me. And

>> only after his answer, I calmed down a bit. It turns out it was his job to protect people from

>> fraud. When the money transferred to Russia or Ukraine. All such transfers are subject to

>> special control. Since a lot of girls from Russia asking money from people of my country.

>> But I reassured bank employee and said that I know to whom I give money. And very

>> confident. I was a bit cursed him.! I gave all the money. 3500dollars for you. And

>> 3000dollars for your aunt. Hopefully now everything will be fine.

>> Now you can all get. I wish you good mood my RUSSIAN baby. )

>> Date: Wen, 29 January 2011 16:12:04 +0300

>> From: 2

>> To: g

>> Subject: RE: how are you

>> hi MY lovely John.

>> I told you all the details for the transfer of money.

>> Why are you silent. I worry. You all well ???????

>> I am waiting for your response. I love you !!!!!!!!!

_Perdido entre tantos correos? Enciende tu hotness con Hotmail

-----------Nod 32 Eset Copiriting 29-01-2011 19-55 treking----------

> > > > good evening my dear girl. ). In the bank, so good. I signed the papers for that would

> > > > get cash. For my country, this large cash believe me. Since we use credin card. Is

> > > > convenient. And not any big cash. You might think that we have in our pocket millions

> > > > of money ))))). In my country we have an expression: neither any large cash. With

> > > > regard to the bank. I quickly received the cash and filled in the declaration. Now

> > > > everything is ok. I have not had so much cash in hand))) ha ha ha ha ha ha ha)

> > > > My feet are trying to escape). I see your letter in my Inbox. I got all the data for sending

> > > > money. waiting for your answer my litle BABY. )

> > > >

> > > > ----Date: Wen, 29 January 2011 13:28:01 + 0300----

> > > > From: l

> > > > To: g

> > > > Subject: RE:

> > > >

> > > > HI m y dear John.

> > > > This is a great happiness that we with you have helped my family.

> > > > Now I can continue my paperwork that would be with you. I visited

> > > > westenr union and they said that you can not send me the whole

> > > > amount at one time. For this reason, I ask you to divide the money

> > > > into 2 parts. And refer them to my name and my aunt.

> > > > That's my name:

> > > > First Name: Svetlana

> > > > Last Name: L

> > > > Country: Russia. Index: 428000

> > > > City: Voljsk

> > > > Street: G

> > > > That's the name of my aunt:

> > > > First Name: Alevtina

> > > > Last Name: P

> > > > Country: Russia. Index: 428000

> > > > City: Voljsk

> > > > Street: P

> > > > Send in the name of my aunt 3000usd.

> > > > All you need to pass 6500usd. 500 usd husband of my aunt sent to you.

> > > > He is a very good man. My favorite, I beg you as soon as possible to

> > > > give money to me here in Russia. After that I will continue training.

> > > > We will be very happy.

> > > >

De nieuwe Internet Explorer: sneller, eenvoudiger en veiliger dan ooit Download nu

X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.3138

> > > > > > HELLO my love WOMAN. ).

> > > > > > Today I checked my bank account and olala husband your aunt turned me 7000

> > > > > > american dollars. I phoned the bank and the manager told me that I need to come to

> > > > > > the bank and sign the document. Now I go to the bank that would get your money.

> > > > > > Once I get the money I get back home and I will write to you about it. And only

> > > > > > then I will go to western union and give you money in Russia. Tell me the details get

> > > > > > in wetern union. Now I must flee. I wish you a pleasant day my RUSSIAN baby. )

> > > > > >

> > > > > > Date: Wen, 29 January 2011 16:12:04 +0300

> > > > > > From: s

> > > > > > To: g

> > > > > > Subject: RE:Re: I l o v e y o u !!!!!!!!!!

> > > > > >

> > > > > > HI MY beast men John.

> > > > > > Today I talked with my aunt. And she said that her husband

> > > > > > gave money to your bank account which you gave me. He

> > > > > > gave you 7000usd. Please check your bank account. And if

> > > > > > the money is received, then quickly visit the bank and get

> > > > > > money for me. You can leave a 500usd. A 6500usd send me

> > > > > > in Russia, in order that I could come to you. I am waiting for

> > > > > > your response. I love you. Your little girl from Russia.

> > > > > >

Voeg je Hyves, Facebook en LinkedIn contacten toe aan Hotmail en Messenger

Nod 32 Eset Copiriting treking 29-01-2011 19-55

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

2011-01-28T18:31:00.000-06:00

Warning: This post contains spoilers.

My library's book club met this week to discuss Water For Elephants. General consensus was that it was a good book. We all liked it.

Okay, down to the nitty-gritty. In the prologue we all three believed that Marlena had killed August, and so were surprised upon learning it was actually Rosie. I think the bit that made the surprise so great for me was that the murder is described as having definite intention. The unnamed murderer in the prologue is well aware of what she is doing and that this particular action will result in August's death and that's the result she's looking for. This level of understanding of one's action is something I ascribe to people, not animals, so that's why I believed it to be Marlena. I mean animals kill in anger, like a dog that's been aggravated and attacks the one who's hurt it. There's no thought involved, it's just pure instinct. For this reason, it seemed unlikely that the elephant was the killer in the prologue. Then when I got to the author's note at the end and she described other instances of elephants killing people, I thought that maybe, just maybe, elephants can murder not just kill. And as one of the ladies in my book club pointed out: an elephant never forgets.

One of the study questions I found for the club discussion was comparing Jacob in the book to the Biblical Jacob. I didn't bring it up in discussion because we were running late and I hadn't had lunch yet, and because I don't really remember the Biblical Jacob very well. I remember only bits of his story: That he got super drunk one night and his daughters slept with him (for reasons I don't remember except that they made no sense). This is mimicked in the book with Jacob's night with Barbara and Nell, though thankfully the incest is left out of it. The only other similarity I can draw is how both Jacobs are forgotten or ignored by their children once reaching old age. Again, more similarities can probably be drawn, but I haven't read that bit of the Bible for some time, so I'm not too familiar with it anymore.

Gruen's research is clearly evident throughout the book. She totally and very believably recreated the Depression-era circus in terms of what happened on the train circus and the specialized vocabulary of the circus. The only word I really knew going into it was "rube." This book introduced me to a new world. I fully understand how Gruen got so caught up in the circus stories that she had to keep researching and drop her other book idea to write about this.

All of us in the book club felt that the ending was apt: Jacob's story came full circle. It's a lucky break, and he had many of those once the Benzini circus fell apart, but it's satisfying nonetheless. A good book and I would totally recommend it to anyone.

H&M

2011-01-17T15:19:00.000-06:00

The other day while watching Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, I noticed that Summer Glau was wearing a shirt that I own from H&M. I didn't catch it at first, likely because I don't expect to see my clothes on TV. Also, the shirt looks better on her, since she's a stick figure. But I have bigger boobs, so I guess we can call it even. Hahaha.

Why, Paul? Why?

2010-12-19T08:18:00.000-06:00

In the shower this morning I had such an annoying song stuck in my head that I did a little unhappy dance and said with great ferocity, "Frig!"

This can only mean one thing: The inevitable has happened and Dinosaur Comics has so permeated my life that I have begun to swear like T-Rex. This is awesome.

P.S. This is the song in question.

P.P.S. I really want a T-Rex plush; somebody buy it for me.

I Love You In Your Tragic Beauty

2010-10-31T14:06:00.001-05:00

This is a phone call I just had from Some Political Dude Who Wanted Me To Vote For His Candidate. Keep in mind that I had a really, really cheerful voice through the whole thing.

Some Dude: Hello, this is so-and-so with Illinois such-and-such, and I would like to know if we can count on your vote for Republican candidate so-and-so and Bill Brady for Governor?
Me: No.
SD: Really?!? Why not?
Me: I'm a Democrat.*
SD: Really? May I ask why? [Or something like that; I kinda zoned out.]
Me: I don't really care.
SD: But you have to care!
Me: But I'm busy right now.
SD: Oh, well, I don't want to take up any more of your time, just let me say that so-and-so and Bill Brady is the best candidate because of x y z. Thank you.
Me: B'bye!

I think I had the dude totally flabbergasted, which makes this the best conversation ever with a campaign promoter. My day is now made.

* I'm not necessarily a Democrat, though I tend to lean more left than right. I just said that because I felt it was the best way to get his goat.

Turn Off the TV

2010-09-30T00:02:00.002-05:00

This is actually a blog I wrote in Google Docs while at work on Friday but never got around to posting here until now. Woo.

-------------------------

I already did actual work today. I even got glue on my shirt. Thing is, I’ve got two hours left and nothing much more to accomplish. This is why Fridays are so friggin’ weird. So now I’m just listening to The Nerdist Podcast with Felicia Day as a special guest. And now I’m just going to listen and type so that I look busy. It sounds like a good plan to me.

Haha, I totally just rushed my dad off the phone so I could answer the work phone. I got a book from Amazon that was in pretty poor shape. The replacement showed up today at the parentals’ and it’s in good shape. Yay. I just need to get the package together to send the old one back to Amazon. Hoorah.

Morse Code Rock Band. I might play that game. Dance Dance Industrial Revolution sounds much better though. This is why I love this podcast and listen to it every Friday while working in the back. Good times.

Did I mention last weekend’s Craft Day? We made little Scottie dogs. So cute. Granted, there were hardly any kids there and those that came were late.

Holy Hell, I still have over an hour before closing time. Stealth-typing is only good for so long and then it just gets boring.

Let’s see, there could surely be something worthwhile that I can do here. Or maybe I can just browse around looking for a cell phone. I’m eligible to upgrade in a little over a week, just after the R2D2 Droid is released. I consider this fate, but if it turns out that I can’t get any discount whatever on it then I may have to choose a lesser phone.

Alrighty then, it’s time to sign off and wander the library for half an hour to pass the time before closing. Woo.

Space Oddity

2010-09-10T14:24:00.004-05:00

This morning I discovered that I could not wear a belt with the pants I bought on Saturday. When I tried them on they fit fine, but seemed like I’d probably want a belt. No problem. They were on super-duper sale, so I bought them. This morning when I put them on they were huge. I haven't lost weight, folks, but there's definitely a change in the way my new pants fit me. So I put on my belt only to find that there’s no belt-loop in the back. There’s the two in front, but I suppose they’re only there for decoration. Craziness. I fixed it though: I put on a black clippy thing in back to adjust the size. Thankfully I’m a slob and never tuck in my shirt so the clip is covered nicely.

I’ve got supplies enough for 15 kids for tots this morning. I doubt I’ll have that many, but I’m always slightly paranoid that I won’t have enough. I only had one kid on Wednesday night. He only giggled when I had trouble getting glue out of the bottle. Meh, at least I got a reaction, yeah? He actually started bouncing up and down in his seat which was stinkin’ adorable.

I’m getting near the end of Goblet of Fire. I’m hoping to finish it this weekend. Hoping. I also have a good deal of chores to take care of and some visiting with friends, which should be fun. Rah.

I’ve got ten minutes before tots starts. I don’t think anyone is here yet. Nevermind, I see a grandma in the children’s room. Who me? Nervous? Never. I should walk out to the desk and get the sign-up book out. Yeah. Toodles.

Later.

There were 7 kids. Yay! And then I came in back and started reading webcomics, which is awesome until a coworker walks in and likely sees you goofing off. Oops. I suppose I should do some actual work, but I think I’ll wait until after lunch. That gives me another half hour to goof off.

Later again.

Hey, look at that, I’ve accomplished something today. I may be having dinner with a coworker friend tonight, which is awesome. I’ve still got one work-related phone cal I need to make, but there’s still an hour and forty-five minutes left before the day ends, so there’s time, man. Totally.

The Nerdist Podcast

2010-09-03T10:17:00.000-05:00

This episode of Nerdist features Alison Brie. I've never watched Mad Men or Community so this probably doesn't excite me as much as it would other people, but she's pretty funny so I'm still digging the show. Anyway on to the blog.

Old business: Daddy never had to have the surgery after all, which is cool. The doctor thinks that it's best to just let it lie and not worry about the stones unless they start to make trouble.

New business: Gearing up for the Tots program. Here I am on my second Friday in the workroom this school year and I'm getting bored without the break to do Tots in the morning. Next week, baby, next week. Unfortunately I have some painting to do to prepare. I usually don't like to have to work quite that hard in prep for any project but I've already gotten too far not to keep going. It's frog puppets, by the way. Good times.

I need to get my act together and buy those Guster tickets. I'm such a frakkin' procrastinator. Looks like a lazy weekend coming up. It's a holiday weekend but as I always have Mondays off, it's not really any different for me, but it may mean there'll be some sales I should take advantage of: I need some more work clothes. If Daddy had a grill, I would insist we cook out for the holiday, but he has no grill, so no cookin' out. Sadness. Oh, well. I've plenty of Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica to watch. Also, I've only read about a third of the way through Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, so I'll probably enjoy that over the weekend too. Yay.

Hurricane

2010-07-18T21:38:00.002-05:00

This is probably one of my favorite Dylan songs. Nothing tops "My Back Pages" of course, but this one is pretty damn good too.

Slowly, but surely, I'm getting the packing done for my 'vacation' to D-ville. Actually I'll be accompanying the parentals to the hospital on Wednesday and then taking care of things at home after we bring Daddy home. (He's getting a couple kidney stones removed. Fun fun.) I'll be back up this way to go to a couple book clubs. I've never been to Kankakee's book club, and generally I can't fit it into my schedule, but summer hours make for more opportunities like this, so I'm taking advantage.

Speaking of taking advantage, I also hope to make use of Jenni's pool while I'm in the Vegas.

I guess that means I better shave.

Kundalini Express

2010-07-14T22:46:00.001-05:00

I once got an @reply from Wil Wheaton on twitter.

Today, I got a direct message from Brent Spiner:

Odd that the only famous people to acknowledge me online were both Star Trek alums. Or maybe it's awesome. *raised eyebrow*

context

Disclaimer

2010-07-14T07:43:00.000-05:00

Despite philosophical differences, all major world religions have the same potential to create good human beings.

Dalai Lama on Twitter.

I knew there was a reason I always felt an affinity for Buddhism: of all the world religions, including my own, it is perhaps the most logical. I recently bought a book of stories that the Buddha told, called The Buddha Said . . . It should make for an interesting read if I ever get around to it. Too bad most people, especially those advocates of their own religions, don't understand the truth of the Dalai Lama's statement above. On the other hand, most adherents to religion (of any variety) are so shitty at it that they don't become good human beings anyway, so perhaps the numbers are against our dear man in orange here. *sigh* The world may be as awesome as the Discovery Channel claims (and it is) but it's still pretty fucked up too.

The Space In Between

2010-06-01T21:36:00.003-05:00

Perhaps it's a good thing that I'm not supposed to eat tomorrow. I haven't had much of an appetite today anyway, and I feel kinda sick too.

I hate my life.

Hot Pocket

2010-04-23T10:46:00.000-05:00

The subject at hand on the Nerdist podcast #8, with Jim Gaffigan.

I made a boo-boo today. Tots starts at 10 AM. Right around then, I saw a mom with kids in the children's room and then I walked back into the workroom. At 10:15 K came in and let me know there were kids ready and I looked at her like she was nuts and said,
"OK, but it's not 10:30 yet."
"....."
"Shit!"
For some reason, I thought Tots started at 10:30. Whoops.

The Nerdist Podcast #7: Andy Richter

2010-04-23T09:00:00.000-05:00

So far on the show they have discussed Lady Gaga and nose-fucking. Is it really any wonder why I enjoy this podcast?

Glass Slipper

2010-04-16T14:39:00.000-05:00

Well, hello, Mr. Blog. Long time, no see.

I watched The Man Who Knew Too Much (Jimmy Stewart, Doris Day version) last night and failed to find Hitchcock in his ubiquitous cameo. Still, I enjoyed a very good movie that I'd never seen before, so that's good.

Tomorrow for craft day we'll be making origami mobiles. Origami was my idea, but Valerie receives credit for the mobile idea: I mean, what else are you going to do with four or five origami figures? I'm using the kit I got for Christmas a few years back, since I never even opened before this week. It's got 130 sheets of that perfect square paper, which is really good because I didn't want to have to cut a bunch of square sheets. They never come out quite right.

Siberian Breaks

2010-03-23T21:18:00.004-05:00

I have all of next week off from work. After Saturday, I don't have to return to work until April 6 and on that day I go in late because I'll be at a Continuing Education program on Advanced Reference at Lincoln Trail that morning in Champaign. It gets out at noon so with driving time and lunch time, I won't be at the library until close to 2pm. Sounds good to me. I'll probably be all confused, wondering how to use the scanner to read barcodes and such after such a long break. I can dig it.

I should paint my nails, but I'm doing laundry and the two tasks just don't mix well.

A patron today wondered if I could be wearing any more rings. (I am wearing four.) I said, "Sure, I could wear some on my thumbs." He kinda shook his head at me.

Cryptorchid

2010-03-05T11:06:00.001-06:00

This week's Tots was fun for once: we focused on Dr. Seuss in honor of his birthday on Tuesday the 2nd. I read The Shape of Me and Other Stuff and and an interactive (meaning lift the flaps and such) version of There's a Wocket in my Pocket! called There's a Zamp in my Lamp! On Wednesday night the kids were practically in my lap pulling the closet doors open to reveal the Woset. It's good to know they're not too shy. Hahaha.

Next week I'm going to read The Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly and another books about bugs, but the most important is the old lady story because we have a puppet, complete with all the animals she ate. So the kids can help me feed her. I anticipate funness. All I need to do is get the craft ready today since I won't be back at the library until Wednesday and I don't want to leave things until the last minute like that. I mean, we all know I tend to work at the last minute, but I still prefer to leave myself a small window of time to try something else in case the first idea flops.

Why will I not be at work again until Wednesday, you ask? Spring Break isn't until the end of the month, you point out. Am I turning into a complete slacker, you query?

The answer: I'm turning Nickel on Monday, dammit! Therefore I've decided to take an extended birthday holiday. I will begin tomorrow by driving northwards to see Ericka whom I haven't seen in nearly a year which is entirely too long and we need to stop with these long stretches of not seeing eachothers' faces.

Then I will go to Tai Chi. This has nothing to do with my birthday, but it's the third session of the class and I finally started understanding it last week, so I better go this time; after which I will drive to the Vegas and spend time with the parentals and such people there as can be convinced that I'm worth hanging out with. I will use Daddy's cooking as a bargaining chip. Also Alice in Wonderland, perhaps in 3D. Then it will be back to reality and libraries and Tots and whatnot. Rah.

I dare you to have an awesomer weekend than that!

Come Home

2010-02-28T14:11:00.002-06:00

Today at church, the priest used an extended example from a Star Trek movie* to illustrate a point made by a 14th-century saint, Gregory Palamas: that we can only find God through our hearts, not through our minds. Of course, the college students in the row in front of me snickered a bit at the nerd flavor of today's homily. Philistines. Does this perhaps make Father Michael a Geek Orthodox Priest?

* The movie referenced was Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, though Father mistakenly called it The Search for God, no doubt confusing it with Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.

Inspector Gadget Theme Song

2010-02-12T13:47:00.002-06:00

This is the most random collection of sentences ever, and the entire text from a spam email wanting to teach me how to treat my lady right.:

rat
The horse neighed. He has no beard. He galloped down a side alley. The head moved. News traveled fast! Of course I got into the eddy.
And also much beets for sugar. The man's eyes frogged. Rien de plus facile. TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN. Par for the course. That was some mail! Why is my daughter silent?
Nature has a reason for all things. It ended in a fight. John Halifax and others. It is not true? Unless the Moors are Negroes. Of course the jury then acquitted him. The lovers were married. He only had two more papers left. Penelope coughed twice in her sleep.
But why show the planes? Now the above are facts. But he was without politics. Woe is me! Do I kiss thee better? My opinion is the general opinion. But a talent. Bigotry is an odd thing. Daughter of the great whore of whores. They thought she knew where he was. What can they be?

Konstantine

2010-02-12T11:35:00.001-06:00

Today is another lazy Friday, the more so since it's an early out for the students and in-service day for the teachers and staff. Shortly, pizza will arrive. Yum. We're also a little overstaffed today which means I get to spend just about the whole damn day back in the workroom. I won't because there's only so much internet browsing I can do in a day. Besides, I'd like to accomplish some real work today as well.

I have leftover Valentines from Tots so I think I'll hand them out to patrons as they leave tomorrow. (The Valentines include suckers and patrons aren't allowed food in the library. Duh.)

I started watching Moonlighting on DVD. I used to watch the show with my mom during daytime reruns when I was a kid. I'm glad I ordered this, because it's definitely fun. The mystery bits a a little forced, but I've only seen the first two episodes so far. I'm pretty sure Cybill Shepard's character gets less annoying (not that she's terribly annoying now, just a tad) as time goes on. Bruce, of course, is fan-fuckin-tastic, as always.

His hair is kinda weird though.

Closer (Precursor)

2010-02-05T15:29:00.000-06:00

I've started accounts at GoodReads and Shelfari to keep track of the books I've read. I haven't decided which of the two I like better yet, so for the time being I'm using both. LibraryThing remains for the books I actually own. These are the reviews I've been posting at the various websites.

That's it for random nerdiness today.

Updraught

2010-01-29T17:38:00.000-06:00

Created by Oatmeal

Cheating On You

2010-01-29T13:57:00.000-06:00

just so's i look busy here at work. actually, i'm reading my twitter feed on my ipod. yay me. i'm also keeping up with the saul williams live chat that's going on right now. so far, it's pretty interesting. i dig the lazy friday vibe; it makes up for having to wake up at an ungodly hour to be here. after work i need to go to the bank to make a deposit and get a roll of quarters (laundry this weekend, rah) and pay a couple bills at the mall. being an adult kinda sucks. *sigh* maybe someday i'll get the hang of this. probably not. actually, i don't want to ever truly *feel* like an adult, because that would mean i *am* a grown-up and that sucks. alack, i shall have to return to the world of actual work at the front desk shortly. this sucks. it's really hard to be a lazy bum when coworkers keep walking into the workroom where they easily see me goofing off. sheesh.

Catch A Hot One

2010-01-29T09:19:00.004-06:00

This is something I wrote Wednesday afternoon at work.

This is just a rant. I'm trying to work things out in my head. Basically, I suck at the programming part of my job. No news there. Thing is that I'm pretty much getting called on it. Not that I'm in trouble with the boss or anything, just that she's throwing ideas my way, basically doing my job, to the extent that she's offering to contact the person to make arrangements. I shouldn't let her do that, but I probably will. Earlier in the afternoon, I realised that there will probably be no one coming to tomorrow's book club (our first ever), a realisation which has put me in a funk for the remainder of the day. Then, I got a phone call from some entertainer dude who would like to perform at our summer reading kick-off. This was well-timed and ill-timed: Well-timed because my thoughts had already drifted toward programming and I had basically decided to get a list of possibilities together and run them by Connie before the end of the week; Ill-timed because I was still in this funk (also I was in the middle of waiting on patrons) and I really wasn't prepared to actually talk with a person about this sort of thing. So I got his website and told him I'd let him know. Meh. He was really awkward on the phone. I had to put the phone down for a moment (remember, patron) and when I picked it back up I said, "thank you for holding." He said, "uh-huh" and nothing else. I was expecting him to try to sell me on his act, but there was just silence on the other end; he was waiting for me to say something. I'm um'd and uh'd and eventually said (once I figured out that he wasn't going to say anything) that we hadn't made any decisions yet. That's when he gave me his website address. Oy! It was only after all this that Connie approached me at dinner. I think she suspected that I wasn't in the mood for talking and I wasn't; I went to dinner when I did so that I could avoid conversation and avoid thinking about all this which was really getting to me at that moment. Writing this has calmed me down as I hoped it would, rather than upset me further as I feared it would, so that's one good thing I guess. Tomorrow's book club meeting will be considered a success if even one person shows up. That person and I will plan for the February meeting of the book club and hopefully more people will show up then. If no one comes tomorrow, I will select a book and declare it the title of the month for February and still try for a book club. I will get more aggressive and actually call people who I think might be interested. I have not done that this time, mostly because I feel really awkward doing that kind of thing. Okay. Next is to get some ideas going for after-school programs for kids. As Connie pointed out, they're here anyway, so we may as well throw together a quick-and-dirty program for them: games, snacks, maybe a movie. We were sent a couple of decks of cards (UNO and something else) so maybe I can use them, and there's a whole cabinet full of board games and whatnot. I need to look at the schools' schedules so that I don't create a conflict there. Thirdly, as mentioned, I need to come up with a list of possibilities for the summer reading kick-off. I think I may hit up Unshelved Answers for ideas on this one. It couldn't hurt.

Update, Friday: Yesterday no one came to the book club as I suspected. However, one lady called saying she was definitely interested and usually 2PM is a good time for her, just not that particular day. I'm hoping she'll come next month. I've already selected a book (The Time Traveler's Wife) and requested a bunch of copies so that they're available for our patrons. Funny thing is that whenever someone asked me if anyone came for the book club, I responded almost cheerily with a "no." I guess I got all the depression over it out of my system on Wednesday.

Burn One Down

2010-01-15T14:40:00.001-06:00

It has been recommended to me that I teach the chicklets about Monty Python since I seem to know all about the subject. Somehow I don't think preschoolers would get the humour, except maybe for the fish-slapping sketch. Sorry, Daddy.

Not to get too topical, but I'm pretty eager to get home from work so I can catch up on this NBC fiasco. It's like a train wreck--I'm fascinated and repulsed at the same time.

I'm about to volunteer to be on a (sub)committee to look into choices for a new automation system at my library. This could be interesting. It makes me feel professional. Hahaha. Also, it's a good idea to have someone from our building involved in the process.

Ahhh, school gets out early today which means I get to hang out in the back even longer than I normally do on a Friday. Not that I'm doing anything productive back here, but it's nice to be able to chill at a computer most of the day.

Speaking of productive, I have a very busy evening ahead of me. First, dinner. I'm already hungry so this is obviously the most important thing. Second, yoga while I'm waiting for dinner to heat up in the toaster oven. Third, pay my bills. (Hooray for payday.) Fourth, go shopping for groceries and for stuff for tomorrow's craft day and maybe some extra random stuff for myself if my bank account allows. (FYE is closing and I want to see what's left.) Fifth, drop my groceries off at home and put them away. Sixth, bring the crafty stuff to the library and do a bit to set up for tomorrow, including making one of each craft. (I have three crafts lined up so I don't want to make all of them in the morning before the folks come in; I need to get at least two done tonight.) Seventh, go to bed. I stayed up way too late last night, being distracted by things on the interwebs, including a Netflix movie. This whole watching Netflix movies on my tv screen is pretty rad. I'm glad I got the necessary cords to make the connection (thanks, Jenni).

Climbing Up the Walls

2010-01-13T22:41:00.003-06:00

I have a whole stack of newspapers sitting in my apartment. They started appearing at my doorstep last week, presumably as a promotional thing in order to get me to subscribe. Hell, if they can't get me to read the ones they give me for free, I'm certainly not going to pay to not read even more papers.

Yesterday the principal went over my evaluation with me. So far I haven't screwed up yet. Woohoo. She did mention that she'd like me to interact more with the middle school staff, though she acknowledges that that's difficult for me working in the library and not having to go to staff meetings and whatnot. Later, when I got back to the library and was thinking this conversation over, I realised that she essentially told me to try to make friends. Hrm. I have friends. True, I understand the value of being friendly with staff outside of my department, but I've never really seen the point in small-talk and as such typically don't go out of my way to chat with people. Also I'm shy, but let's take shyness out of the equation--small talk serves little purpose other to cover uncomfortable silences (and I don't tend to find silences all that uncomfortable). Conclusion: I'll chit-chat when I bloody well feel like chit-chatting, when it happens organically, not when it feels false or forced.

Blister In The Sun

2010-01-08T15:38:00.003-06:00

I'm a bit late on my new year's blog this year, but I was kinda busy and sorta lazy so I won't bother making with the excuses.

On to the blog.

Actually, looking back at last year's resolutions, there's only two I can definitively scratch off--I found my camera, which had been hiding cleverly in the pocket of my backpack; and I finished Lolita. (In my defense, many of the resolutions are of the maintenance variety and should be listed every year for all eternity, or at least until I grow up, which I hope will be never.) I confess that I really failed on the yoga vs. noga front in 2009. Mostly I was unable to attend yoga classes in the Heights, (though the rec center in the Heights started having classes in the spring, which was nice), and now in this rural area there aren't any classes available at all. This does not excuse me from doing yoga at home. The second seeming failure on last year's resolutions was the writing thing. True, I wrote less than half the number of blogs in 2009 that I wrote in 2008, but I kept a journal in Google Docs while at my first full-time job. Every now and then I would post excerpts from it here, but on the whole it was material best kept to myself, written to keep me sane at a job I hated (and thankfully now have left). The Rubick's cube remains untouched. And there's that other thing, but whatever.

Resolutions for 2010:

Writing (See last year.)
Yoga (See last year, also.)
Concerts (This would be one of the "maintenance variety.")
Addictions (The CD one has taken a decidedly digital turn, but I still buy physical albums now and again; The DVD collection continues to grow nicely.)
Reading (I haven't read nearly so much since I took this job in July. I suppose I don't make time for this as I should. Sad times, sad times indeed.)
Procrastination (I'll say more on this later.)
Songs (I think I'll stick with titling blogs with the name of the song I'm listening to while blogging. It amuses me.)
Eating (I did a decent job of increasing the health level of my food in 2009, but I know I can do better.)
Storytime (This one needs explanation: I don't really enjoy this aspect of my job. I do it because I have to and that's that. I want to enjoy it more, make it more fun for both me and the chicklets.)
Juggling (You thought I'd forgotten, didn't you.)

Angels We Have Heard On High

2009-12-21T15:14:00.002-06:00

This is a conversation I just had with an online acquaintance. Too funny not to share.

Me: i plan to start Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson in a couple days; it's nearly 1000 pages
Dude: what's it about?
Me: no clue. the author seems to be a favorite in geek circles, so i thought i'd give it a whirl and read his first book. i think it's kinda sci-fi, but i'm not certain
Dude: ahhh i see
Dude: do you consider yourself a geek?
Me: in certain things, yes. i've never been a gamer, so i can't claim to belong to that aspect of geekdom
Dude: lol
Dude: thank the Lord
Dude: you look too baddass to be a geek
Me: hahaha
Dude: it's true
Dude: the short hair, black clothes, intense expression
Me: i'm wearing white and green today
Dude: screams: "don't mess with me or i'll turn into a werewolf or vampire and suck your blood"
Me: hahaha

Mistaken

2009-12-18T15:42:00.001-06:00

How does one work when one has no work to do? A conundrum.

I am once again sitting at my desk waiting to start Tots in about fifteen minutes. There's at least two kids here so far. I don't know how many I'll have in total, but I hope it's twelve or less because I don't have enough supplies for more than a dozen. The highest number we've ever had was eleven, so I hope I'll be safe, otherwise some poor kids will have to make wreaths of colors that aren't the traditionally Christmasy red, green, and white. (Not like the kids would really care all that much anyway.)

My Christmas shopping is over half done; I'll finish the rest tonight and tomorrow. Of course that still leaves the project I need to finish for Mom. Here's hoping I can get it done in time, and also that I don't completely screw the thing up--still a distinct possibility.

Did you know that The Muppet Family Christmas does not appear to exist on DVD? I can't find it on Netflix or in my library's system. Oooh, but I *did* just now find it in Worldcat. Hell, yes!!

White Christmas

2009-12-16T22:56:00.003-06:00

I finally finished Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist and posted my review to LibraryThing. I received the book through their Early Reviewers program. I had the book for ages and took a really long time to read it because I only read it on my breaks while at work, something I alluded to in the review. I got at least two emails from LibraryThing to remind me to review the book. So now that's done. Yay.

Now I have to read and review the second book they sent me. Oy! Hahaha.

Read the review here: www.librarything.com/review/51886842

Jack's Obsession*

2009-12-16T09:13:00.001-06:00

Books to the ceiling,
Books to the sky,
My pile of books is a mile high.
How I love them! How I need them!
I'll have a long beard by the time I read them.

- Arnold Lobel

*Not the title of this poem, which was on my Google quotes today.

Rodeohead

2009-12-04T13:17:00.002-06:00

Actually I'm listening to Wil Wheaton's Radio Free Burrito podcast Episode Fourteen, but at present he's playing "Rodeohead" by Hard & Phirm on the podcast. It's a country tribute to Radiohead in medley form. In other words, it's made of awesome. Enough about my listening habits and on to the blog.

Tots went well today, though I have a ton of silver bell parts left over. I should really try to figure out how to make a penguin craft. I know what story I want to read, but I can't remember the title or author (making me very much like some of my patrons) but I have it saved in one of my email accounts, so I can look it up easily enough (unlike like the aforementioned patrons).

Whoa, this iPod is at nearly half-battery right now and it's only been on for about 2.5 hours, meaning its battery life is slightly over 5 hours, which isn't as weird now that I've done the math, reminding me that the iPod is 3 years and some months old. Yeah.

You know how I wanted to update my Halloween playlist on iTunes? Still not done. And now it's time to update the Christmas playlist on my iPod (actually, all my playlists, as my new iPod arrived at the parentals' house yesterday). I have to remember not to solely play with it this weekend, instead of paying attention to the padre on his most illustrious of birthdays. This Sunday marks his last year as a sextagenarian. He doesn't seem that old, and yet, numbers don't lie. (They don't know how, silly numbers.)

Gotta Be Somebody's Blues

2009-11-26T09:37:00.003-06:00

Seems to be an instrumental version.

I have ventured into the world of sales: I've placed my first item on eBay. I used Mom's account, since she already has a decent rep and has her PayPal all set up. So far I have three bids. I sincerely hope it sells at 200 or better (preferably better). Yeah, I'm nervous. Hahaha.

Have a peek.

Marianne

2009-11-25T09:32:00.004-06:00

I just remembered that I had a dark grey metal cuff bracelet that I used to wear 24/7 but haven't worn in quite some time. I probably haven't worn it since I moved here. I just looked through all my purses and bags and jewelry cases to try to find this bracelet. Thing is, I can't remember when, where, or why I last took it off. I think I must have been living in the Heights at the time, and I'm certain I cleared everything out of that apartment, so if it was there, it should be here somewhere. Unless I took it off at my parents' house, or somewhere else altogether unguessable.

I wish I had a good memory.

Where is everybody?

2009-11-20T09:35:00.000-06:00

There was some other song stuck in my head all night, but now I can't remember it. It'll come back to me probably, though. I ought to be working. Once again I am too fucking lazy and tired to do much of anything at work on a Friday morning. I slept well last night, but I didn't the night before and now it's really hit me. So, yeah, I wish I were back in bed. I'd claim to have a migraine some time after Tots so that I could go home early, but I promised my afternoon hour in the workroom to Pam because she missed hers (through a series of fuck-ups on my part - long story) on Tuesday. If I left, she would feel obliged not to come into the workroom. I don't want to give her the shaft twice so I'll stick around. And there's no sense in going home after that, because there'd only be two hours left in the day from that point, anyhow. I'd go straight home after that and take a nap, but I really need to get to Walmart before the deli closes so I can get some sliced turkey for tomorrow's program. That's what I'm currently avoiding: I need to make examples of each of the craft projects I intend to have the patrons do tomorrow, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. I think I'll take the stuff home and do it tonight. Jeez. I've never had so much homework on this job as I have this week. Mostly because I failed during the workday to get shit done. This had better not be a habit. Nah, most weeks, I'm on top of things, but this week I had the conference in Champaign and that took a whole workday away from me. On the other hand, it got me out of going to the board meeting this month and that always makes my heart happy. (I hate board meetings.) So yeah. That's today's story. I have a purchase list to revise and reduce to a reasonable amount. I'll work on that tomorrow, I think. And Tuesday. I'm still not sure about Wednesday. I'll need to talk to Connie about that later today. Why is everything so complicated???

Angel

2009-11-05T13:25:00.002-06:00

So I finally broke down and took some Sudafed, which may or may not have been a good idea. I don't feel that the status of my runny/stuffy nose had changed much, yet I definitely feel way tired, even light-headed. Granted this started three hours after I took the pill, so it may not be a side-effect after all. All I know is that I have 6.5 hours left in my work day and I'm ready for bed right now. I hate to leave early since I know it's difficult to find a substitute on such short notice. I dunno, I'll give it another hour or so and see how I feel.

Friends

2009-10-21T22:42:00.003-05:00

The new Flight of the Conchords album is very very enjoyable. I should buy the second season on DVD, even though I liked the first season better. Good times.

Speaking of friends, I haven't talked to mine in way too long. One in particular isn't answering her phone and needs to, dammit. Rawr. You know who you are. *raises eyebrow*

Devil's Dance

2009-10-02T13:55:00.001-05:00

As it turns out I never properly updated my Halloween playlist in iTunes after the Crash of '08. All I did was throw a few obvious choices in there (The Nightmare Before Christmas, Bauhaus, some AFI, some Manson, etc). Thankfully, I still have the complete playlist on my iPod (because why the hell would I delete awesomeness like that just because the season is over?). This reminds me of when K told me I was the only person she knew who had a Halloween playlist. Hahaha. Speaking of K, I need to call her; I miss her and all the gals at DPL. *sigh*

The Tots program seems to be going fairly well. I tried something which I thought would be really cool on Wednesday night but it didn't go over so well, so I left it out this morning. Ah, well. This is definitely a learning process. I'm waiting for a phone call from a contact at an audiobook company so I can ask him some questions about our account. I keep getting conflicting information from the gals here. I can't help but wonder how they have managed to keep anything straight. I sure don't understand, which is why I need to talk to the dude. Unfortunately I get very awkward-sounding (Who me? Never!) when leaving messages on voicemail, so I'm hoping he caught my name , library and phone number. If he doesn't call back by Tuesday, I'll send him an email. I'm a much better writer than speaker. Maybe I should have gone that route to begin with. *sigh*

Ooh, ooh. I have a nameplate to sit on my desk now. S brought it to me this afternoon. She's like, "You're official now!" Def excited. They even spelled my name right. My name is prefaced with the title "Ms." My parents and I had a discussion over this title the other day, because I mentioned that one of the high school students had called me by my first name and that sort of threw me a) because I'm a teacher/librarian and it's not usual to use first names with such people, and b) I had no idea she even knew my name; I don't know hers. Anyway, Mom said that I need to point out to the students that they need to call me Miss A. I said that one of the teachers had introduced me earlier that week to her students as Ms. A (actually, I introduced myself; the teacher forgot my name). Mom misheard me and said, "At least you don't go by 'Ms.'" I said, "I do." I'm not married and therefore not a Mrs. and 'Miss' sounds too condescending. Daddy chimed in and said that 'Miss' doesn't sound right for any past her teens or very early twenties. I agree. Mom seems to be under the impression that 'Ms.' is something solely used by feminists in order to hide whether or not they may be married or some such nonsense. *sigh*

List of Demands

2009-09-11T09:39:00.002-05:00

Once again, I am blogging from my work desk on a Friday when I ought to be working, but whatevs. I have my iPod to keep me company and by typing the blog first in Google Docs I can at least look busy, so all's good. Wednesday night, I did my very first Tots program which is the storytime & crafts program for preschoolers. There were two parents, each with two kids, so hardly an unmanageable number of kidlets. I read a couple stories, one of which was very dull and I won't be using this morning when I do my repeat session. The theme of this week is red. Next week, we'll be doing green. I'm too excited to be reading Green Eggs and Ham next week. Heehee. Anyhoo, the Tots thing is alright, but I'm still nervous a bit. The boring book I mentioned was simply a picture of something red (or someone wearing something red) and on the facing page, "My hat is red" or, "my overalls are red," etc. I really wanted to say, "My face is red," because I'm certain it was. Maybe I'll be a bit better this morning. I'll have the kids point out red objects in the room before I start the story. That should take up a bit of time. I'm wearing a good deal of red, so that will give them some options.

For the first time ever this morning, someone asked me where I was on 9/11. This is obviously the question of this generation, as "Where were you when Kennedy was shot?" was to a previous generation. I was in chem lab that morning. My teacher had stepped into the supply room to get something and then stepped back in and said the World Trade Center had fallen. My first thought was, "Whoa." Second thought: "So we get to leave school early, right?" That's probably representative of my insensitivity or my lack of desire to do any work or something. Oh, well. I burnt my thumb about twenty minutes later on a ceramic crucible. Hell of a day.

Anyone

2009-09-04T11:52:00.001-05:00

Fridays I think are going to turn out to be my worst days at work. The greatest benefit is being able to listen to my headphones. Yay music! See, Friday is my day in the back--I'm to work in the (conveniently named) workroom and answer the phone so that the gals at the desk don't have to interrupt their work to deal with that. Cool. Whatever. Problem is that I don't really have a hell of a lot to do in the workroom. I think I may tackle reorganising my workspace, which could effectively use up today's time, but what about next Friday and the Friday after that? Yeah. I took care of ordering the audiobooks earlier this week. From now on, I'll know to hold that for Fridays. There's another company I need to make up an order for (from?). And there's a vendor coming later in the month whose wares I should look at before he comes, so I know what would be wise to choose. Also, it's my job to take care of programming. True, I've come up with quite a list of things to do but I'm dead tired and don't really feel like working. I purposely didn't check my email this morning so that I could do that here at work, but I've finished that and Reader so I dunno. I'd just be happier working out front, I guess, shelving and cataloging and doing circ work. I suppose that I could get to barcoding more Reference materials if I wanted, but that's such a monotonous job, really. I've got some magazines to barcode too. Okay, okay. There's plenty to do back here. I'd just rather not, that's all. I'm being a pain in the ass. It's okay; I'll get over it. However, I think this programming thing will have to wait until next Friday. It requires more concentration than I feel able to put forth right now. I only got about 3.5 hours of sleep last night, so I'm not at my best. And with that, I'm done with this blog. Rah.

Kitty Litter

2009-08-31T11:33:00.001-05:00

I just got my cable/phone/internet installed and did the obligatory channel-surf through the whole catalog. There's a few channels which are sorely missing with my service. Most notably, Turner Classic Movies. This was one of my favorite stations at the parentals'. *sigh* Surprisingly, I don't have Bravo. Most others I don't have (but would like to) I can survive without because it's no big deal. TCM is a big deal. I guess I should be glad I still have Netflix to satisfy my fix for old movies. Okay, enough bitching. The most important thing is that I will be able to watch Heroes when season four starts in September. Nothing else really matters, so I'm gonna check my email now (on my very own legal internet, woooo).

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Rx Queen

2009-08-25T22:17:00.002-05:00

Aside from the four books which are AWOL somewhere in my parents' house (and, frankly, have been for a very long time), I have finally catalogued every single book I own in LibraryThing. This is pretty monumental as my collection contains nearly 600 books. Wowsers.

Come Undone

2009-08-23T21:05:00.006-05:00

This shan't be one of those blogs in which I apologize for the neglect I've shown it once again. Let's all just agree that I suck at updating this with any regularity and move on.

Good.

Next week I will have my very own internet. And cable. With DVR. And a telephone line. In other words--I made a deal with the devil, AKA Comcast. Actually, why is it that Comcast gets so many complaints and attracts such barbs and general disgruntlement from people? It's not cheap, that's for sure, and it's often the only choice available (if you want decent internet speed, that is). Meh, not my problem.

Soooo excited about this weekend's concerts. Tonight, as I type, NIN is playing the entirety of The Downward Spiral in New York. This being the case, who knows what awesomeness Trent and Co. may have in store for Chicago. Perhaps TDS again; I daren't hope for the whole of The Fragile. In any case, this makes me oh so very very happy that we're going both nights. It's almost a given something special will happen. I know they're doing rather longer setlists than is typical (and typical for Nine Inch Nails is a reasonably long setlist to begin with).

It's a shame that I get blog ideas and rarely follow through with them, for one reason or another. One time, half the blog was lost and I didn't think I could properly re-create it. In other words, blame the goat. Another fell to waste because I waited too long and the ideas filtered out of my brain. Yet a third I may still write, but not tonight. The internet is too sketchy and I've already spent too much time at this computer today. Instead, I shall go read, or perhaps watch a movie.

Roll Call (Reprise)

2009-08-07T21:46:00.002-05:00

Geeeeeze, it's been forever since I updated this poor blog. I guess I must be busy or something. I have a new job, rah. I actually like this, so I think I'll stick around here for awhile.

Delilah

2009-06-24T15:36:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I got a email rejection letter from one of the libraries I applied to in April or whenever. This was the one that when confirming receipt of my application, commented on the title of my resume (Hire_Me_I'm_Awesome.doc). Here's her rejection letter:

Dear Jessica,

Thank you so much for your interest in the Assistant Director’s Position [I actually applied to Assistant Reference Librarian, but whatever.] here at the Kelley Library. You do show some signs of being awesome, and I personally found your cover letter a delight. We discussed your application long and hard because of the many high qualifications. In the end, your distance from was a strong factor. We were reluctant to call you in should we, despite your awesomeness, decide to go with another candidate – it is a big expense for you. So with real regret we looked more locally.

It is clear that you have much to offer to a library, and I am sure that you will see much success. I know from personal experience that moving forward in our profession can be challenging but worth the effort. If by some chance you are still searching, take heart, just the right position is waiting for you. Again, thank you for considering us.

This was too good, so I emailed her back:

Thanks. I took a position not too long ago and will be starting that next week. It seems like a good fit. The fact that you referred to my awesomeness not once, but twice in your letter totally made my night, though. Best rejection letter ever!

Then she replied:

Congratulations! I am delighted to hear your, dare I say, awesome news. Best
of luck on your new position - I hope it provides many challenges and a great
deal of reward.

So friggin' cool. Had to share.

Weird Fishes/Arpeggi

2009-06-21T16:31:00.002-05:00

I'm home visiting the parentals this weekend. I've spent most of today reading a book for Tuesday's book club; I'm leading the discussion and I haven't finished the book yet. Whoops. Yesterday I spent time with Erin and then had dinner with her, Jenni, Amanda and Josh. Good times. Erin wants to go see Aerosmith and ZZ Top in Indy this summer. Definitely tempting, that one, even though we would only be able to afford lawn tickets. Maybe Jenni can sneak in her telephoto lens and still get decent pictures from back there.

It was so hot in this house earlier that I was nauseated. The A/C is on now, so I'm okay. Getting hungry, in fact, though dinner won't be ready for nearly two hours. Oh well.

I drove down here in a huge lightning storm. They had tornadoes in Westville, Daddy told me today. It wasn't that windy or even that rainy, but damn were there a lot of lightning strikes. Sure, the closest strikes were about a mile or two away, which is far away--but it looks damn close. It made for a slightly tense drive south. To tell the truth though, I kinda wished I'd seen strikes a bit closer. How awesome would it have been to see a tree explode with lightning in a field adjacent to the road? I guess I can't have everything.

Me and Bobby McGee

2009-06-09T17:47:00.002-05:00

I don't know why, but I had this song stuck in my head all morning. Weird, since it's hardly my favorite Janis tune and since I haven't heard it in several weeks.

Updates.

I gave my current job notice yesterday. I start the new job on the 1st of July. It's a major change, but on the whole it should be a good one.

I found an apartment too, but need to talk to the landlady again to sort out the details. (She had a lot of details concerning her other rental units to figure out before giving me a call.)

I haven't yet started telling patrons that I'm going away; I'll leave that one for my final week, I think.

I wish there was a way to verify the ages of the kids who come up to me to use a computer. I would swear this one is not 16 (the age limit for using the computers in the adult section) but we don't list birthdate on patron records, so I can't truly know if he's lying or not. So I let him get on. Whatever. I don't honestly care, so long as he's quiet and isn't looking at porn.

That's it for now. Toodles.

I'm Afraid of Americans

2009-05-28T01:41:00.003-05:00

This must be what I get for drinking coffee so late in the evening. I'm totally not sleepy. I spent the last hour in bed trying and failing to sleep, so I decided to see what I could find in the wee morning hours on the internet. Yeah, I'm online at home. It seems I'm able to connect to an open network from my bedroom. It's a weak network, so much so that I can't get it in the livingroom pretty much ever, but it serves its purpose so I'm not complaining. Okay, I'll complain a little bit: sitting on the floor like this is putting my legs to sleep, which isn't cool. I've lost all feeling in my left foot. This being the case, I think I'll give up on the computer and try once again to get some sleep. I have to wake up in a little over six hours.

One To The Right

2009-05-20T12:19:00.007-05:00

This song came on my iPod on my way to work. I hear LBC has a new album coming out soon. Def looking forward to that.

I keep neglecting this poor blog. It's probably growing resentful of me. It may just strike out on its own, posting LOLcats and links to creepy porn, completely irregardless of my wishes. In order to stave off my blog's prodigal nature, I'm gonna clip a tidbit in here from the journal I write at work in my Google Docs file. It's the one where I bitch about patrons and such-like and is therefpore inappropriate for wider viewing (just in case a coworker or patron - heaven forbid - comes across my little space of the interwebs).

This is something I wrote a couple of weeks ago, and as it's about writing, it fits here, yeah?

I just noticed something about my writing. It has a sort of detached air to it. Someone once told me that I write just like I speak, which makes me wonder if I also speak (and probably think) with a detached air. Answer: yes. I don't so much say what I'm feeling as describe what I'm feeling. That's a subtle distinction and not very clear. Let me try again. I tend to talk about how things make me feel, rather than outpour the emotion itself into my writing. Once again I am confronted with how much of a cold-hearted bitch I really am. How did I get this way? Has it always been so? I think, yes, it has.

Anyhoo, life has been decent of late, for once. I've been going to yoga classes regularly (not this week, though; I'm working evenings). I haven't felt as strapped for cash these past couple weeks as I had before, which is a relief. In less than two weeks I get to see NIN not once, but twice. This alone brings the awesomeness level of my life up by 90%.

My stolen internet is no longer available, so I'm working on being responsible and getting internet of my own. As this will include cable, I guess it won't be so bad. The only problem is the bloody installation fee of 100 bucks. Curse you, Comcast. I'll not worry about making it wireless for awhile. My computer is close enough to the cable outlet that I can keep it hardlined anyway. It's only when I finally get that spare bedroom sorted out that I'll move the computer in there and need wi-fi. That's long down the road as I need to buy more bookshelves before I can do anything with that room. Argh.

Bad Habit

2009-05-14T16:09:00.002-05:00

Last night I awoke to hear my downstairs neighbor in the throes of love. It wasn't as annoying as you might think, since all I heard were short, clipped "oh"s which had humoursly made their way into my dream before I woke up. The dream was some sort of animated cartoon description of horseback riders and there was one very girly rider with huge bushy reddish-brown hair that covered her whole back and she kept saying "oh" every time the horse moved. Too funny.

I think a dude just got arrested here at the library. I don't why as I haven't had the opportunity to talk to one of our cops and ask, but our two regular guys were here and then two more cops showed up and approached the dude and made him stand up, patted him down, asked him a few quick questions, and led him away. He seemed a nice enough dude to me; I wonder what's up.

Legions (War)

2009-04-25T19:56:00.004-05:00

This has been the longest day of laundry in the entire history of my life, and I still haven't finished. Thank God I'm at home doing this rather than at a laundromat. True, at a laundromat I could have finished earlier having the benefit of using several machines at the same time, but think of all the money I would have spent. I think I've got seven loads here. That's definitely more than 10 dollars, which is what I almost have in quarters. Long day.

I was going to burn a CD for my daddy, but I forgot. That's okay; I need to buy silver and/or gold markers first to write on my omgsogoth black cd-r's. Alsooo, I realised that the album and ep won't both fit on a single 80-minute cd. It goes over by about 3 minutes. Tears. The artist in question is Zoe Keating, whose ep and album I downloaded earlier this week. Sooooo good. Truly. Necessity of life. If she ever comes around this way, I'm definitely going to go see her play.

The real test in all this laundry craziness is how long the folded laundry will remain in the hampers used for transportation before I hang the shirts in the closet and put the rest in the appropriate drawers. I'm willing to bet it won't be done Sunday night when I get home. Monday then? Tuesday? Likely it will wait until I can no longer just grab clothes from the top to wear on a given day. It could be all week at that rate. Never underestimate the limit of my procrastination. How else would I have ended up with so much laundry to bring home for washing?

Terrible Lie

2009-04-20T13:08:00.003-05:00

The computer heathens are really dragging me down lately. They keep testing us to see what they can get away with. Okay, so this is normal, but last week we had an incident that got way out of hand, thanks to a bitch of a patron and a coworker who said something in response that was wildly inappropriate. Soon we'll have an automated system on the computers that will allow for better appropriation of computer usage. Until then, I just have to wait for the next blow-up because it's coming. That one patron will make certain of it, I'm sure.

In other news, I have a cold. Not quite so bad as to warrant a doctor's visit but unpleasant nonetheless.

This is going to be another long week, I can feel it. At least there's a light at the end of the tunnel. I'm going home for the weekend.

The Engine Driver

2009-04-13T14:33:00.003-05:00

Okay, so I'm not really listening to The Decemberists right now, as I'm at work, but I did hear it yesterday and the song was stuck in my head all night, so that's close enough for me.

I'm frustrated beyond belief. I have a program going on right now. It's my second ever. As far as I know, the dude is sitting in an empty room, with no patrons to talk to. Once again the newspaper did not print anything in their Around Town segment on the program. I even emailed back and forth with a real person about it, and it still didn't get printed. I have another email address that I'll try next time. Tomorrow probably, as I'm too frustrated at the moment to concentrate on it right now. The dude is scheduled to be here until 4 o'clock. Hopefully at least one person shows up before then. I posted several flyers around town and a few here in the building; maybe they were enough to generate interest in a few people so that they come. I hope.

If this happens a third time, then I don't know why I even bother. I'm getting paid to schedule programs that aren't being attended. This is ridiculous. I feel useless enough at this job as it is. The next program is one where we had to pay the speaker a good deal of money to come. If that one falls through like these other two, then it's a bit bigger deal as we'd be losing money on the gig.

The dude just came up here. He had one person come in. That's one more than I expected. It's an hour early, but he's left now. No need to stay any longer I guess. Sigh. I feel like such a fucking failure.

The Jeep Song

2009-03-30T20:21:00.000-05:00

I feel I ought to type something here, simply because it's been so long. I feel I've neglected my poor blog. I use twitter while at work, but that's mostly to read, not to write.

I had an amusing story about a raccoon, but as I've already told in person (or over the phone) to the only people who might be bothered to read this blog, there's no point reiterating it here.

So what else is new in the life of Jessiqa? I'm still working here at the library. I've learned most of the computer heathens' names. Today, I unintentionally took Daddy's advice for shaking things up by scheduling two people for the same computer. Whoops. It worked out alright though, thankfully. I turned 27 earlier this month. Not much of a milestone really, but I got to hang with friends that weekend, which was hella awesome, even if Ruby Tuesday now sucks because they changed their recipe for their veggie burgers. Tears.

I had only one program in the month of March and it was a flop. My next program is in a couple of weeks. Hopefully this one will go better, though I sometimes feel as though no one is really paying any attention to what I'm doing on the job anyway. As though the powers that be likely won't know if I fail at what they hired me to do. Conversly, they may not know if I do something tremendously awesome. Remind me why I went to school for this again.

That's about it for now, I think. I'll pop back in to update in another few weeks or so. ;)

Wintergreen

2009-03-01T23:35:00.002-06:00

I think the snow has finally stopped for the day. Hopefully, most of it will have melted or blown away so that I don't have to spend too much time tomorrow morning cleaning off the car. I'm lazy.

Oh, I just glanced at the Weather Channel's website. Apparently we're under a Lake Effect Snow Advisory until 9AM. Suckage. That's okay. I'm not waking up until 830.

If the ten-day forecast holds, then it will warm up later in the week, even reaching the 50s on Thursday or Friday. Rock on.

This weekend, I watched the first season of Twin Peaks. Good show. I can't wait to get the second season. It seems everyone on the show is duplicitous, even triplicitous. Yes, I just invented that word. This show requires the invention of such a word, trust me.

I'm vaguely considering going to see Watchmen this weekend. I don't know if it's Ericka's thing though. And Jenni will likely be obligated to go see it with her hubby. Maybe I'll go on my own next Monday, as all movies are five bucks, and that's awesome.

The Clicking of Multiple Keyboards

2009-02-27T15:21:00.002-06:00

I'm at work, so there is no music from which I can glean a post title. Tears. I miss the days of listening to my iPod in the workroom. More tears.

Last night I found the buckeyes Janet gave me for good luck. I had completely forgotten about them. It kinda put me in a weepy mood for the evening. I'm such a sap.

Yay, we close in an hour and a half. Imma gonna take me a break here soon. Maybe I'll snag a cookie in the staff room.

Man, patrons seem talkative today. At least that one dude didn't hit on me today. I don't like being called 'sweetheart' by people I don't want to be friendly with. It's a very subjective rule, true, but whatevs.

If I Am

2009-02-26T21:46:00.002-06:00

If I had any sense I would take out my contacts and put my glasses on. I would also eat dinner. I don't know why I'm not hungry yet. True, I ate some candy when I got home from work, but even that was some time ago. Hmmm. Maybe I'll just have a bowl of Cream of Wheat. How exciting!

This is a lonely place. I met some librarians from other facilities within our system this morning. We discussed adult programming. I'm still intimidated by the prospect but less so than I was before this morning's meeting. I have some contact info now, so that I can pick the brains of a few of these folks. Truthfully, more than advice on programming, I'd like to strike up a friendship with these people. I need more peers. We'll see what happens.

I'm thinking of starting a journal all about my work and experiences here at my new job. It could serve some purpose in the future. Or maybe not. It would keep my fingers and brain busy at the very least, and really, what more could I ask for?

OK, I really need to deal with this dry contacts situation. Thus ends today's blog.

She's Electric

2009-02-23T20:00:00.000-06:00

34 minutes left and I get to go home.

I had vaguely considered going to a movie tonight since a nearby theatre does $5 Mondays but I'm pretty damn poor until the 6th so I should probably pass and take advantage of the lower price on the 9th when the Jenster will be over for a visit. She's coming because my birthday is on the 8th. 27 years old, I will be. Wow. Who knew I was that close to 30 already? It really snuck up on me, that one. (Firefox tells me that 'snuck' is not a word. I disagree.)

Whoops, time to yell, I mean, tell the patrons that their computer time is up.

Well, that's done. I still have about ten minutes before I can start turning off the copiers

Make that five. Woot.

I'm sure there's something else I ought to do, but damned if I know what it is. Geez.

We have three and since there's pretty much no one here, I thought I'd go ahead, but as soon as I turned off one, someone came in to make a copy at the last minute. Figures.

Okay. NOW I can turn off the copiers.

Okay. Time to get out of here.

Toodles.

Burn

2009-02-16T16:18:00.003-06:00

This is Day 4 in the new apartment. I'm getting more and more used to it. There's so much work to do, much of which I haven't even begun. As my mom reminded me yesterday, it doesn't have to be perfect at the end of the week. There's no rush. I think there was a part of me that really felt I needed to get everything cleaned and put where it belongs by the time I trek home to the Vegas on Friday. Now, I keep reminding myself of what Mom said so that I can justify spending an inordinate amount of time organising my CDs (don't ask) and an semi-ordinate (is that a word?) amount of time watching The X-Files.

Speaking of which, demonbaby recently posted a picture of his Flukeman shirt on Twitpic and it reminded me of how I hate that episode. Through 9 good, mediocre, scary, funny, conspiracy-laden seasons of this show and only one episode really and truly bothers me. It gives me the willies. I've started it three times, but only finished it once. This makes me wonder whether I'll be able to/want to finish it once I get around to it in the near future. I know it's from the first or second season, so it won't be too long: I just finished the first disc of the first season today.

I'm sitting on my bed using stolen internet with a rather low reception. I get better reception in the living room, but that's not where I'm sitting right now. It's all the way down the hall. Hahaha. I should probably go out of the house at least once today. We've reached a startling high of 37 degrees today, thought it's only 34 right now. Meh. I still have a Starbucks gift card I could use, but I don't really see the point. If I cleaned the coffee maker, I could make my own (which would taste nothing like Starbuck's as it's not espresso, but that's beside the point).

I was listening to John Cleese's podcast earlier. Funny stuff. I have nothing else to ramble on about, really, I just keep typing because I like the sound of the keys clicking.

The Shoop Shoop Song

2009-02-06T20:44:00.004-06:00

I am so completely overwhelmed by everything right now. People keep asking me if I'm excited or eager about this new job. No, I'm not. I don't think I'm going to like it. I'm sure I can do it, yeah, but it doesn't seem like a job or place I'll enjoy. I took the job because I need it, not because I want it. So, no, I'm not excited. I'm weary. I'm resigned. I'm only excited about the apartment, but at this point, being in the middle of moving and having so much work to do, I'm not so keen on it anymore either. I'm done. Can I go back and say no? I just want to sleep for forty years. Can I be Rip Van Winkle? Can I get conked on the head or something and wake up in an alternate universe? Maybe Discworld? I'd die in a half a second on the streets of Ankh-Morpork, it's true, but even that seems a welcome alternative to my current reality.

Diamond Dogs

2009-02-04T08:02:00.002-06:00

I feel like the rock monster in The Neverending Story who kept looking down at his hands and saying, "They used to be such big, strong hands," only I'm saying, "They used to be such nice, soft hands." I need industrial strength lotion.

If you haven't heard "Bale Out," find it on Youtube. It's a necessity of life.

My cup of coffee is empty which is damn near a crime at this godawful time of the morning.

The only huge things I'll need to move out after today is my desk, bed, and chair. Fun times. Oy!

Walking with a Ghost

2009-01-29T12:44:00.004-06:00

It's still really hard to believe all of this: That I am packing and moving. That I will finally have an apartment of my own. That I have a real job waiting for me in February. Generally, when I try to comprehend surreality of all this my brain responds thusly:

In This Twilight

2009-01-27T13:00:00.002-06:00

Remind me again why I'm moving.

This packing nonsense is awful. I finally got all my CDs packed away, but there's still lots of DVDs and VHS tapes. Not to mention all the books and other random crap that's accumulated in my room over the past 26 years or so. Do you know I have two Kermit the Frog dolls. Two. I have no idea why. They've both been packed.

Shit son, John Updike died today. Lung Cancer. I feel kinda bad I always called him Upchuck. Still, I'm no fan of his writing style. (He used far too many sentence fragments and run-on sentences for my taste.) He was 76 years old. He will be sorely missed, I'm sure. Here's the AP news release.

Golden Eye

2009-01-27T00:18:00.002-06:00

I'm wiped out and about ready to go to bed, but Jenni reminded me this evening that I have not yet posted about getting a job. (Though I think she's my only reader, so I'm not sure how much it matters. Haha.) Anyhoo, I am now employed as a reference librarian at a small public library in the south suburbs of Chicago. I start on the 16th of February and I've already got an apartment, so I'm pretty much set. Yay!

In other news, I got a spam email today from Андрон Володин entitled "Your lips so soft and smooth." I laughed out loud at that one. I also misspelled 'laughed' twice, so I think it's time for bed.

Perdido Street Blues

2009-01-18T21:54:00.003-06:00

Here's to another blog written purely out of boredom. Woo.

I was sorely disappointed a few minutes ago when I remembered that this is Sunday which means no Daily Show. *sigh* I should go on hulu.com and watch Thursday's. I forgot to tune in that night. Does it air on Fridays? It didn't used to, but I don't know if they changed that. I don't think so; it's probably just wishful thinking on my part.

I'm listening to Dido. It makes me want to watch Love Actually. Such a good movie.

I should finish reading the Sunday funnies. I only finished the first page when I got distracted by talking to Jenni online. Also, my neck hurts, so it's about time I get up away from the computer for awhile.

Toodles.

Making Progress

2009-01-11T15:33:00.002-06:00

Not for the first time in my life, I put my underwear on inside-out today and didn't notice until I'd already had them on for some time. Whatever, they'll just stay inside-out, dammit.

The last post and this one are both titled according to whatever song happened to be playing in iTunes at the moment of me typing. Maybe I should make that my theme for the year. Trouble is that I'd end up with duplicate titles the way I tend to listen to certain artists on repeat. Nonetheless, an intriguing idea.

Subterraneans

2009-01-09T21:36:00.000-06:00

I've been offered a job as a reference librarian in a small public library up north. It's decent pay. Nevermind that I have no experience in reference or adult programming, but whatevs, can't be that hard, right? I have a meeting with the library director and the board members in about a week and a half; the board members have to approve the director's decision to hire me. I think I'll get it. The director was *this* close to hiring me in August, but passed on me because I have no Spanish fluency and the position required developing the Spanish collection. It still does, as the person I would be replacing did that, but he doesn't seem to think it's that important.

Yeah. Good news. Finally. I only graduated over a year ago with this fucking masters degree, I guess it's about time I get a job, even if it is in an ugly little industrial town. Hahaha.

Oh jeez, I'm so nervous.

Sock Woes

2009-01-05T23:26:00.004-06:00

The problem with an overstuffed sock drawer is that one cannot get to the socks on the bottom or in the back without spilling the socks in the top-front onto the floor. This leaves one to choose only those socks near the top-front so as not to make a mess. However this limits one's sock choices to only those that have recently been washed and put away so that those socks that have not been worn recently will not be worn in the near future either. This means that the sock collection is so large that it is essentially reduced to a small number. Ooooh, paradox.

Revosolutions

2009-01-01T13:47:00.005-06:00

Shall I consider it a signal of the coming year that the very first song I played on iTunes in 2009 was by Meathead?

Before I list off this years resolutions, let's see how I did on last year's.

Well I'm still in the Vegas, but I got a second part-time job to tide me over while I continue to search for a proper job. My CD and DVD addictions are coming along swimmingly. I started yoga in March. I love it. I even go to a class on Wednesdays, which reminds me that I need to sign up for the next session. Though I didn't get to see either Tori Amos or The Cure live this year, I saw NIN twice, also Amanda Palmer, Tiger Army, Saul Williams, Elsinore, and The Dresden Dolls. I got/bought lots of socks this year. Lots and lots of socks. I still don't know how to juggle though.

Okay, so this year now:

Learn to juggle.
Solve the Rubick's cube Aunt Cathy gave me for Christmas and I never should have touched.
Do more yoga and less noga.*
Eat healthier foods.
Continue feeding the CD, DVD, and concert addictions.
Write more. Whether here, in my leather-bound journal, or elsewhere, just write. This is a skill I should never let lie fallow.
Procrastinate less.
Find my camera. I know it's here somewhere.
Finish Lolita. It's very good, but I keep forgetting to listen to it. I guess I'm just not an audiobook person.

* See also 'random thoughts from comments' 1.

Exist Now

2008-12-27T20:19:00.004-06:00

While driving on I-65 to Elizabethtown over the holidays, I saw a billboard that said "Exist Now." Guessing that this was some religious or philosophical statement, I wondered who put up the billboard. The phrase was in big black letters on a white background. There was nothing else. I craned my head around so I could see better. (The far section of my windshield was blurry with rain/snow.) There was a Cracker Barrel logo attached above the white rectangle of the billboard. I was all WTF until I realised that the sign actually said "Exit Now."

Bonus blog:

I was looking for an empty notebook (and failed) and found one that I had used for a history class as an undergrad at DACC. The page I opened up to had final exam study notes on the Nixon era. The page is labeled "Dick." Part II of the outline goes like this:

II. Should he have resigned?
A. Yes. He was a villainous crook.
B. He was a nasty little man & he should never have been president.

I would like to submit that students of Illinois history many years down the road may have similar entries in their notebooks regarding Governor Blagojovich.

Wiiiiiiiii

2008-12-25T23:56:00.000-06:00

I played Wii for the first time this holiday. I suck at it, but I kinda want one now. Hahaha.

Hit her, Ash, hit it!

2008-12-20T22:39:00.003-06:00

Perhaps it was not so wise of me to watch The Evil Dead while alone in the house at night right before bed when the wind is blowing pretty fiercely outside making the house creak and the door to the garage rattle.

P.S. I've always kinda had a thing for Bruce Campbell, I admit it.

I chuckled.

2008-12-15T21:52:00.001-06:00

http://twitpic.com/t994

This is just sad.

2008-12-13T13:28:00.002-06:00

This morning I spied a newspaper on the table at work, waiting to be checked in. The newspaper is one that is only published two or three times a month, so I almost never see it when checking in newspapers. My internal monologue said, "Oh, we got one of those episodes in? [pause] Did I just say episodes when referring to newspaper issues?" At this point I just shook my head and wondered what the world is coming to when even a librarian can't get those straight.

Guaranteed Novel

2008-12-06T20:36:00.003-06:00

I'm feeling very weird today. Sort of off. I dunno. There are several reasons, I suppose. I'd say that I should just have some hot chocolate and be done with it, but I'm still really full from dinner. Maybe I'll watch a movie. It's late, though, and I want to get to bed at a reasonable time so that I can go to church in the morning. Last weekend, I was thwarted by the shock of snow. There's still snow, but it's been here a week, so no surprises there unless i wake up to find the driveway a foot deep in snow. I don't want to have to shovel my way out when I'm dressed for church. I may even wear a skirt.

Speaking of skirts, I wore one today to my great aunt's birthday party. She's 75. Today is Daddy's birthday too. He's 68. It was quite a shock to me this afternoon to realise there's only a seven-year age difference there. It feels like it should be a lot more.

I think I should watch a movie. A comedy, preferably. Maybe I'll pop in The Princess Bride.

Prop 8 - The Musical

2008-12-03T15:48:00.000-06:00

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

SNOW!

2008-11-30T11:52:00.002-06:00

It snowed last night, so I decided not to drive to Chambana this morning. Okay, it didn't snow a lot, but my fuchsia car is definitely white.

Also, I think my dad is watching something fun in the way of Wallace & Gromit without me. How dare he?!

To The Pain

2008-11-16T18:43:00.002-06:00

Five points if you can name the movie referenced in the title.

I just started reading Rock and Roll Cage Match which is a collection of articles pairing up artists to see which is better. It's all relative and highly subjective, of course, but it's damn fun. I confess, I decided to check it out based on the Trent Reznor vs. Marilyn Manson chapter, but I'm really, really enjoying the whole of it. I haven't gotten to Reznor/Manson yet; so far R.E.M. has won over U2, Whitney Houston over Mariah Carey and Timbaland over Phil Spector. This is a great read for any rock fiend. I highly recommend it.

Google Quote of the Day

2008-11-16T11:34:00.002-06:00

I chuckled.

Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before... He is full of murderous resentment of people who are ignorant without having come by their ignorance the hard way.

--Kurt Vonnegut

John, Paul, George, Ringo

2008-11-13T21:41:00.002-06:00

It's obvious I've had a long, tiring day and my emotional rubber band is about to snap when I hear "Hey, Jude" on the radio and it damn near brings tears to my eyes. Not in a bad way; I had a silly little smile on my face at the time because I love The Beatles, but I was definitely getting a little watery. Meh. I agree with Daddy--"Something" is a much better song.

JTHM kills kids at the library.

2008-11-09T23:09:00.004-06:00

Back in August we received a copy of JTHM: The Director's Cut as a donation at the library. I thought this was really odd. Because it was a nice new copy, I wanted it as a replacement for mine whose binding started breaking after the first read. So I put a bit of paper in it claiming dibs on the book if it doesn't get added to the library's collection.

A few days later, the head of the children's department asked me about the book. She had looked through and noted it's graphic violence and naughty language, so she wasn't really sure for what age group it was appropriate. I said that most who have read Johnny started in middle school or high school. (I first read it when I was 23 and had some really weird dreams that night afterwards, but that's another story.) I said that true appreciation of these comics would require an understanding of irony as all the violence is meant ironically, not as a suggestion or validation or glorification of violence. She decided to think about this.

Fast-forward to last Thursday, three months later, and she hands me the book and says I can have it after all. Earlier that day I had been wondering whether she had decided to add it to the library's collection. I can understand her decision--it's hardly like the other books in our graphic novel collection. Those tend to be superhero comics or cutesy manga. Whatev. Now I have two copies. I rock.

Ye Gods, but I'm tired.

2008-11-06T06:35:00.003-06:00

Whoever the hell thought it would be a good idea to get a job where I would be required to wake up at 530 on occasion should be shot.

*BANG!*

Okay, that's taken care of then. I'm still not happy about this being at work at 700 thing. Especially as I'm supposed to be shadowing someone to work on signs, but I have no idea who that someone is. Either Dina or Donna. I suppose I'll just ask when I walk in, no big deal. But I'm not there yet, so I'm still fretting. Gah. I really hate my brain sometimes.

More than anything in the world, I just want to go back to bed. I'm trying to work out in my brain whether it would be feasible to take a nap between jobs today. I need to squeeze lunch in there too. Difficulties, difficulties. Maybe I can forego lunch and just eat on my break at the library. Good idea, but I barely ate any breakfast, so I'll likely be starving by noon, which means no putting off lunch til 3ish.

Hahaha. I'm totally zoning out while sitting here at my computer. I'm going to be wonderfully useful today, I can tell.

Votified

2008-11-04T13:38:00.003-06:00

I've got my sticker, where's yours?

Anyhoo. I want free Starbuck's for having voted, but we no longer have a Starbuck's in town. Tears. So we may travel to C-U to get some there, which is an awful long way to drive for free coffee. And yet, we will probably do it. The only catch is that I'll miss a lot of Comedy Central's coverage of the election tonight. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are joining forces to present Indecision 2008 in its final hours. I remember watching The Daily Show all night back in 2004. Good times. Maybe I can convince my supervisor that it is in the public's best interest to know what's happening and she'll allow us to roll out a TV set so we can watch, just like on 9/11. Hey, you never know!

Three minutes into a song, and I just realised that it's the instrumental version of the song. Shows how much I pay attention to the music I'm listening to while I'm putzing around on the internet.

Hello

2008-10-28T11:28:00.001-05:00

I heard POE on the radio this morning.

It is going to be a good day.

I'm All Twitterpated.

2008-10-27T13:37:00.001-05:00

I've started a Twitter account at Jenni's behest. Come follow me. I'm sure it'll have more activity as time goes by.

608

2008-10-25T18:42:00.002-05:00

I just read on LibraryThing that Geoffrey Chaucer died 608 years ago today. Wow. I took a class on Chaucer once. Good times. I really should read the whole of The Canterbury Tales one day. One day.

This is how I will die.

2008-10-17T15:23:00.001-05:00

December 25, 2019: Trapped in the chimney.

You decide to surprise your family this Christmas. You wear your Santa suit and climb into the chimney with your bag of gifts. The gifts unfortunately spill out of the bag and wedge themselves around you. You try to move, but it looks like you're stuck! You die from exhaustion and carbon monoxide poisoning. Turns out this Christmas won't be so merry after all!

When Will I Die by QuizRocket.com fun quizzes!
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Maybe I didn't think this through.

2008-10-17T13:54:00.004-05:00

Most of the above mentioned 42 jobs I have applied for are professional positions which require my Masters degree. See, every day I look at job lists of new openings all over the country. This is easy, thanks to Google Reader, and I can sort through all the job lists right in one place after I take care of my email in the morning.

You wouldn't believe how many libraries are looking for directors. Geez. Are they all retiring? Did they go to a conference and eat the same fatal hors d'oeuvres? Who knows.

Not relevant to me anyway. I'm looking for entry-level work. This is more difficult than it seems, because most positions out there want to hire someone with at least 2 years of professional experience. This experience is what I'm trying to get. Fuck, I just want a job. I can't live with the parentals forever. Since I don't have any professional experience really, I thought I'd apply to a few paraprofessional positions. Not many, but a few, just because I might have a better chance at them than others. I dunno.

Today I got an email from a university where I had applied for a paraprofessional job to give me a heads up that that's what the position is and that they are looking to hire a professional cataloger if that might be more up my alley, but to let them know if I still want to be considered for the paraprofessional job. I emailed back and said yes. I looked at the description for the cataloger position, and although I'd like to catalog, I have no experience with that outside of the classroom. There's no way in hell I'd get that job and I know it. Also it requires doing some supervising of other workers, something I've never done. Here's the rub: I fear that because I said I was interested in the paraprofesional job, not the cataloging job, even though I have a Masters, that they will interpret this as a lack of ambition and won't bother to call me for an interview.

I can't win. Ever. I've only had three interviews out of all those jobs I've applied to. The last was over a week ago, and I haven't heard anything back from them yet, so I assume I didn't get that either. (Which doesn't surprise me; I should have prepared a bit better for the interview. Also, I got really flustered at one point, which is normal for me--I'm just too damn shy and ill-coordinated in social situations.) I think I'm fucked, and not in the happy way. Damn catch-22.