redecorating

or rather...rearranging.

I got up early today (as I told KT I would) and swapped two rooms out.  These are the rooms formerly occupied by Mrs. Roomie.  My original intention was to have my honorary clothes dryer exercise equipment in one room as a little home gym and set up the other as my office.  Through circumstances I can't even remember now, my computer and accompanying hardware ended up in the same room with my recumbant bike and the actual computer desk was in the other room with a box of coat hangers and an ironing board.

Now, dear reader, I am at the altar of computery goodness with my nice computer desk and accompanying stuff while all the exercise crap is in the other room AND I vacuumed the lot!  I was almost late for work due to my good work ethic.  Unfortunately, the good intentions I had to come home and make some inroads in the living room were drowned in bowl of salsa, then dunked in some refried beans and finally finished of in a shrimp fajita burrito.  I don't know what the deal is, but I crave Mexican food ALL THE TIME!  And before anyone asks the question, no it isn't that.  

Anyway, I've been in my local Latino restaurant so often that I'm thinking about introducing myself.  I always take a book in with me (because I believe people dining alone don't look quite so creepy with a book in hand...unless it was the one I was reading!) and several of the employees are now in the habit of stopping by the table to ask what I'm reading.  KT, I really should be getting some comp time at work from all the reader's advisory outreach I do a La Tortilla :)  Today it was true crime.  I am reading what I think is an outstanding book by Simon Read called In the Dark: The True Story of the Blackout Ripper about a serial killer stalking the women of London during the Luftwaffe.  After sunset, London circa 1942 was a pit of darkness.  Streetlights were extinguished, women spent long hours sewing "blackout curtains" for their homes, and constables patroled the streets all night long to ensure that the stygian darkness remained complete...anything to take the advantage away from the German bombers overhead.  Into this darkness steps a fiendish killer who uses his good looks and charm to get past the suspicions of lovely ladies.  I am about 1/4 of the way through the book and the killer has just  escalated exponentially the depravity of his crimes.  

It's creeping me out a little.  Good stuff!  The book group I lead at work (actually, a genre reading group as I like to call it) is reading true crime this month and I found this slim little jewel of a paperback via one of my favorite blogs, In Cold Blog!

kitty office space

boy, am I glad Binky can't jump very high anymore...I could definitely see some of this happening if she could only get to my computer desk!

i'm a geek!

I earned a whopping 10 points on this quiz and am described thus:

You're a geek. You or your subject is a geek, preferring the fantastic to the mundane; geeks are more apt to favor lightsabers over laser pointers and comic books over text books.

I can live with it ;-)

now THIS is cool!

Visit the Pooktre Tree Shapers and prepare to be AMAZED...or maybe I just need to get out more...

graphic delight

NO, NOT THAT KIND! Get your mind out of the gutter!



What I'm talking about is a graphic novel, the more grownup, literary version of a comic book. I was mentioning to Daxx the Magnificent how much I enjoyed 30 Days of Night by Steve Niles (Author) and Ben Templesmith (Illustrator) and he suggested I try The Walking Dead by by Robert Kirkman (Author), Tony Moore (Illustrator), Charlie Adlard (Illustrator), and Cliff Rathburn (Illustrator). When the R.I.P. III Challenge happened along at the same time, I knew I had to read this book for the Challenge!



The Walking Dead opens with two cops, Rick and Shane, in an altercation with a maniac. Rick is shot and the scene ends. In the next section, Rick wakes up alone in a large hospital (some of you may be channeling images from 28 Days Later at this point and you are not alone). As he makes his way out of the hospital, he discovers that something is terribly wrong with the people he encounters. His biggest hint? They try to eat him. As the only live person in a sea of death, Rick fights his way out of the city in search of help as he is sure someone somewhere must be working to solve the problem. Surely the government will help! You can guess the rest.



There are unexpected surprises, devastating losses, and nasty developments galore in this gory little book, though little color. Most of the illustrations are black and white, but still capable of conveying so much. I found all of the panes without dialogue were still, despite their two dimensionality, perfectly understandable through the illustrators' renderings of marvelous and very-human facial expressions. I am happy to report that Daxx the Magnificent has recently brought me Book Two and I am so excited to get to it. Book One ended at a very pivotal moment survival-wise and I can hardly wait to see how that turns out. Highly recommended, though not for the kiddies by any means, adults only (strong language, graphic violence and gore, some sexuality: to steal from the movie industry).

If I were Sarah Palin's child . . .

. . . my name would be

Wood Corps Palin

Visit the Sarah Palin Baby Name Generator to get yours!

*snickering all the while*

the human question

so, Sunday and Monday I attended a humanities leadership summit. Its focus was to bring together cultural leaders to discuss the humanities in 21st century technology and to gain knowledge of technology and to build new relationships for future partnerships (I got that from the program schedule as you can no doubt tell). There were lots of great presentations and demonstrations and KT and I are excited about implementing as much of it as we can manage without an addition staffperson to manage our social media presence :)

One of the things that struck me most, and got a little annoying as well, was the overuse of the word "robust". I remember a time when this word was reserved for dark roast coffee and good red wine but now we have robust websites, robust search engines, robust menu platforms, robust information formats, and a million other robust things I can remember right now. It came up multiple times in every presentation and table talk. I can tell that the word is lurking in my frontal cortex just waiting to pounce the next time I'm trying to sound smart. Can you hear it now? Robust online catalog, robust databases, robust historical fiction...hey, be sure and use our robust copier, it staples things for you!

Anyway, it was a good conference and I hope they will be able to hold it on an annual basis. The humanities were defined at the conference as all of the disciplines (history, literature, ethics, philosophy, art, ect) that ask the question, "What does it mean to be human?" It was really refreshing to talk and network with other people working in the humanities. It was nice to be around other people who value liberal arts education efforts like I do.

In my educational history, I have simply excelled more in these areas than in ones in non-humanities fields. I don't understand math and science reasoning (I say reasoning because there are areas of science that I enjoy and can comprehend...a little) and have worked hard since I was a young adult to overcome the stigma of not doing well academically in those areas. I made a 26 on my ACT's, missing the 27 pt scholarship cutoff for the pre-vet program at Auburn at that time. That was devastating when I was 17, but from the view at 31 I can honestly say that it was a blessing in disguise. I don't have the innate skills it would have required for that (I now live that life vicariously through KT's sister...hey Z!) and I DID TRY! I had live tutors, online tudors, live study groups, online study aids. I tried all of it and it just wasn't possible. Imagine my disappointment and disillusionment when I discovered that all those adults who'd said "You can do anything you put your mind to!" had lied or where VERY mistaken. Don't tell your kids that, it hurts more when they discover that it is not true. I put my mind to it and I still couldn't do it. I am a very intelligent person despite the fact that I can't help my 12 year old niece with her math homework. I am a very intelligent person despite the fact that my science projects were not very sophisticated. I have other areas of intelligence that are ideal for the career I've chosen, skills that are valued extremely highly by the service population I'm responsible for at my library, and skills valued by my coworkers with the computers aren't working :) You try finding a book on French poetry, Alabama railroads, Regency furniture or crockpot recipes when the computers aren't working and you have no access to the library catalog. It's a skill, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it!

Off to work, talk atcha later!

tomorrow...

...I will have a robust post for you, but I'm just too sleepy to get it done right now. The road to hell and all...

night ya'll!

too funny, but it made me sad too

I used to have a kitteh who did this whenever she saw a bird close up through the window, or if one was stupid enough to get close to her outside. Sashay was a horrible hunter because the bird would have to be old or infirm not to hear that coming. Sadly, we moved and instead of letting me take the kitties over to the new house to get acclimated, my mom's boyfriend took them over and just let them out of the car in front of the house. They ran into the woods and we never saw them again. I found out about it when I got home from school and I cannot describe that feeling, but anyone who has lost a pet unexpectedly knows of what I speak. I still hope they took up at someone else's house and lived to a grand old age instead of the alternative.

Oh well, on to more amusing things:

Wasn't she pretty? She was SO mean too!....to everyone except me, that is :) I still miss her.

don henley, sarah palin and butts in baskets

oh yeah, she's related to me all right! :)

LivePrerecorded and direct from my dear niece....it's the Shelbo Show!