Foker Out!!!!
htw
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Friday, June 29, 2007
is it time to go home yet?
...sitting in Gorgas Library
...50 minutes 'til class
...what the hell do I do with myself after this
...going home for the first time since June 8th
...and I can hardly wait to sleep in my own bed, look in my own mirror, cook on my own stove, the corollary: mess up my own dishes! Before you ask, I threw away everything perishable before I left so hopefully my refrigerator won't be a biology experiment unless I overlooked something. My next petsitting job won't be starting until Tuesday and it will only be 'til the following Friday, then my next job won't start until the 16th and after that, LOOK OUT FLORIDA, HERE I COME!!! I haven't been on a real vacation for the past 4 summers. I've been in school the past 3 summers and the one before that is when my horses got sick and I had to have them put down. I'm still sad about that; I miss my ponies all the time.
On to happier news, my tattoo is itching like an SOB as it heals (par for the course). My niece sent me an email asking me to extend the due on one of her library books. I like that terminology much more than the boring "renew my book" that we currently use so I'm implementing it into my library slang as of today. Look for it (and ask for it too!) at your local library today!...or tomorrow!
Our teen programming for this week was a scavenger hunt in the village, which was still going strong when I left to come to class. My assignment consisted of sitting at the location of one of the answers to make sure that decorous behavior was exercised and that CPR was administered if one of the little crumb crushers got run over. Sidewalks are there for a reason kiddos! From one of my fav movies, "Santa don't visit the funeral homes, little buddy." T came up with some great clues so I hope everything continued to go well after I left.
Speaking of teens, one of my favorite teen patrons, A, just got back from a month long tour of Eastern Europe and she brought me back the cutest little cup from...Romania or Hungary, I can't recall which but both are equally cool. I'll try to see about getting a photo up...I've done so well about getting pics up in general, you know...
Well, I guess I'll go to the classroom and sit. Maybe something interesting will occur, stranger things have happened.
¡Buenas noches!
htw
...50 minutes 'til class
...what the hell do I do with myself after this
...going home for the first time since June 8th
...and I can hardly wait to sleep in my own bed, look in my own mirror, cook on my own stove, the corollary: mess up my own dishes! Before you ask, I threw away everything perishable before I left so hopefully my refrigerator won't be a biology experiment unless I overlooked something. My next petsitting job won't be starting until Tuesday and it will only be 'til the following Friday, then my next job won't start until the 16th and after that, LOOK OUT FLORIDA, HERE I COME!!! I haven't been on a real vacation for the past 4 summers. I've been in school the past 3 summers and the one before that is when my horses got sick and I had to have them put down. I'm still sad about that; I miss my ponies all the time.
On to happier news, my tattoo is itching like an SOB as it heals (par for the course). My niece sent me an email asking me to extend the due on one of her library books. I like that terminology much more than the boring "renew my book" that we currently use so I'm implementing it into my library slang as of today. Look for it (and ask for it too!) at your local library today!...or tomorrow!
Our teen programming for this week was a scavenger hunt in the village, which was still going strong when I left to come to class. My assignment consisted of sitting at the location of one of the answers to make sure that decorous behavior was exercised and that CPR was administered if one of the little crumb crushers got run over. Sidewalks are there for a reason kiddos! From one of my fav movies, "Santa don't visit the funeral homes, little buddy." T came up with some great clues so I hope everything continued to go well after I left.
Speaking of teens, one of my favorite teen patrons, A, just got back from a month long tour of Eastern Europe and she brought me back the cutest little cup from...Romania or Hungary, I can't recall which but both are equally cool. I'll try to see about getting a photo up...I've done so well about getting pics up in general, you know...
Well, I guess I'll go to the classroom and sit. Maybe something interesting will occur, stranger things have happened.
¡Buenas noches!
htw
Thursday, June 28, 2007
how's your short term memory
I'm not sure what the results of this test mean, but mine looked alot like the value of pi :)
still happy thursday!
It is now 10 minutes after five, 50 minutes left in the workday, and I'm still going! It felt like cop-ing out to leave since E is still here slaving away and she got home at the same time I did...plus she's had to do 2 programs today; a movie for 4th-6th graders and a theater group for 2nd-6th graders. I pledged earlier in the day to not bitch about my 2 computer class students this morning. It was the last class so the usual trials and tribulations were not present for the most part.
I wish I had more to say :)
htw
I wish I had more to say :)
htw
happy thursday!
As I sit here at work, swilling the last of my 20 oz coffee before I have to go start up computer class, I am starting to feel a little bit human. I have my sweet onion bagel with green olive and pimento cream cheese and all seems right with the world. At this point, I feel like I'll be able to make it the entire day! Getting to go to lunch with my friend P will provide some additional incentive I'm sure. The whirlwind adventure is over and home is wonderful...one thing I know for sure, Holley T is NOT a city girl......
¡Buenos Dias!
htw
¡Buenos Dias!
htw
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Charlotte-Douglas International Airport
After my last post, fate found us stranded on the tarmac because of lightning (which I never saw) and we were there, in the plane (the hot plane), strapped in and unable to get up and move about, for an HOUR AND A HALF! ! !
...which of course caused us to miss the 3pm connecting flight in Charlotte
....which is where we still are until 10pm, the next flight out we could get on
we got into Charlotte about 5pm and the airline issued us tickets on the next flight out. Some of the other librarians from Birmingham got on the 5:30 flight but OOOOHHHH NOOOO, not us. We're stuck here until 10pm. They didn't even give us dinner vouchers since it was "an air traffic controller's mistake and we don't cover their problems." How nice for you....because I know that I have some younger readers, I will not include my subsequent thoughts here...imagine them for yourself, dear of-age reader.
It is 8:30 now and I'm tired, sweaty (this airport is hot as hell), irritable, and unhappy about flying around this late and having to get up and go to work at the hairy buttcrack of dawn to teach computer class in the morning. I'm very tempted to just leave afterward...I'll have to see how it goes. Maybe a quick trip to Starbucks will be in order first thing.
I really wanted to be home, clean, cool, and napping by this time.
S is off having a pedicure so we are sitting in rocking chairs (a nice touch for an airport I admit) sweating like farmers...such ladylike thing to do :)
Maybe I'll have more exciting things to talk about tomorrow.
Good night!
htw
...which of course caused us to miss the 3pm connecting flight in Charlotte
....which is where we still are until 10pm, the next flight out we could get on
we got into Charlotte about 5pm and the airline issued us tickets on the next flight out. Some of the other librarians from Birmingham got on the 5:30 flight but OOOOHHHH NOOOO, not us. We're stuck here until 10pm. They didn't even give us dinner vouchers since it was "an air traffic controller's mistake and we don't cover their problems." How nice for you....because I know that I have some younger readers, I will not include my subsequent thoughts here...imagine them for yourself, dear of-age reader.
It is 8:30 now and I'm tired, sweaty (this airport is hot as hell), irritable, and unhappy about flying around this late and having to get up and go to work at the hairy buttcrack of dawn to teach computer class in the morning. I'm very tempted to just leave afterward...I'll have to see how it goes. Maybe a quick trip to Starbucks will be in order first thing.
I really wanted to be home, clean, cool, and napping by this time.
S is off having a pedicure so we are sitting in rocking chairs (a nice touch for an airport I admit) sweating like farmers...such ladylike thing to do :)
Maybe I'll have more exciting things to talk about tomorrow.
Good night!
htw
Reagan International Airport
~1.5 hours 'til boarding time and here I sit, blogging in an airport for the first time. People-watching is an odd sport in an airport. In this post-9/11 world it doesn't do to stare too hard or you'll draw attention to yourself. Maybe I'm just being paranoid again, which is entirely too possible. I'm paying for this internet connection because I shipped all my books back home and I was devastatingly bored. Now all the email has been checked, I worked through my Bloglines account, checked in with my class via WebCT, which led me here to my House.
I had a nap yesterday after slogging through the steamy D.C. streets back to the hotel, then we had reservations at this restaurant called Zintanya (or something close). You order all these little tasting dishes and everyone at the table shares. We had zucchini-cheese patties, something with carrot and pine nuts, ground beef and lamb with spices, calamari, shrimp, couscous, and a host of other yummies. It was too loud for me, but I'm glad I went. I then went out with C and S to a bar called Madame's Organ which was decorated in an overdone saloon-type getup with paintings of naked ladies everywhere. There was a great live blues band playing and the martini would have taken rust off of a car bumber...I pretty sure I forgot to tell them I wanted a vodka martini instead of gin....bleck! I also like them dirty, or maybe filthy...whatever several steps above dirty is called. Basically I'd like a little vodka with my olive juice if you get my meaning. It was a bit too strong anyway. You know how sometimes the alcohol in a drink will settle down at the bottom if you don't stir it, then the last sip strips all the skin out of your esophagus on the way down...that was pretty much it.
One of the most disturbing things about this city is the amount of homeless in residence here. I am not the well-heeled traveler so Boston is the only other big city I've ever been to. There were homeless there of course but Washington, D.C. seems to be absolutely covered up. Every park bench was full and every shady spot on the ground covered with the homeless, of every color, age, and both genders (some indeterminant). Outside the Washington Convention Center I saw a man lying on the ground under a tree....I don't know if he was concerned about prostate cancer and feeling for lumps or what, but there was activity. I know such things go on of course, but I've just never seen it with my own eyes. The Office of Veteran Affairs was relatively near by so I wonder how much of these unfortunate people were products of war and how many fell through the cracks of an unorganized system? I am vastly more greatful for the relative peace and prosperity of my life and hope I can keep this new perspective as I go along in life.
In other news, Katie cannot find her iPod. I combed our room and had E go up and check behind me. We also asked the concierge about the hotel's lost and found...no luck. Katie left yesterday and told me that she never took the iPod out of the room. That leaves only one possibility, but wouldn't you think someone intent on pilfering would have taken more than that? There were plenty of opportunities and lots of stuff that a deft hand could have made disappear fairly quickly. S said she had left jewelry and cash out in her room and had had no trouble. Katie said she'd just have to take care of it when she got back to town. I'm hoping that perhaps the errant iPod made its way into some of the items that were shipped home, or that it is just tucked into something she hurridly packed yesterday...although she did tell me that she'd unpacked all her stuff twice since she'd gotten to her mother-in-laws house. I hope she finds it later.
Oh well, the 'ol laptop is about to run outta juice and there is not a plug nearby so I'll take my leave. Maybe I'll be able to get back on later.
Buenos Dias!
htw
I had a nap yesterday after slogging through the steamy D.C. streets back to the hotel, then we had reservations at this restaurant called Zintanya (or something close). You order all these little tasting dishes and everyone at the table shares. We had zucchini-cheese patties, something with carrot and pine nuts, ground beef and lamb with spices, calamari, shrimp, couscous, and a host of other yummies. It was too loud for me, but I'm glad I went. I then went out with C and S to a bar called Madame's Organ which was decorated in an overdone saloon-type getup with paintings of naked ladies everywhere. There was a great live blues band playing and the martini would have taken rust off of a car bumber...I pretty sure I forgot to tell them I wanted a vodka martini instead of gin....bleck! I also like them dirty, or maybe filthy...whatever several steps above dirty is called. Basically I'd like a little vodka with my olive juice if you get my meaning. It was a bit too strong anyway. You know how sometimes the alcohol in a drink will settle down at the bottom if you don't stir it, then the last sip strips all the skin out of your esophagus on the way down...that was pretty much it.
One of the most disturbing things about this city is the amount of homeless in residence here. I am not the well-heeled traveler so Boston is the only other big city I've ever been to. There were homeless there of course but Washington, D.C. seems to be absolutely covered up. Every park bench was full and every shady spot on the ground covered with the homeless, of every color, age, and both genders (some indeterminant). Outside the Washington Convention Center I saw a man lying on the ground under a tree....I don't know if he was concerned about prostate cancer and feeling for lumps or what, but there was activity. I know such things go on of course, but I've just never seen it with my own eyes. The Office of Veteran Affairs was relatively near by so I wonder how much of these unfortunate people were products of war and how many fell through the cracks of an unorganized system? I am vastly more greatful for the relative peace and prosperity of my life and hope I can keep this new perspective as I go along in life.
In other news, Katie cannot find her iPod. I combed our room and had E go up and check behind me. We also asked the concierge about the hotel's lost and found...no luck. Katie left yesterday and told me that she never took the iPod out of the room. That leaves only one possibility, but wouldn't you think someone intent on pilfering would have taken more than that? There were plenty of opportunities and lots of stuff that a deft hand could have made disappear fairly quickly. S said she had left jewelry and cash out in her room and had had no trouble. Katie said she'd just have to take care of it when she got back to town. I'm hoping that perhaps the errant iPod made its way into some of the items that were shipped home, or that it is just tucked into something she hurridly packed yesterday...although she did tell me that she'd unpacked all her stuff twice since she'd gotten to her mother-in-laws house. I hope she finds it later.
Oh well, the 'ol laptop is about to run outta juice and there is not a plug nearby so I'll take my leave. Maybe I'll be able to get back on later.
Buenos Dias!
htw
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Holley gets inked ! ! !
So I was planning my celebration for Sat. after MY LAST CLASS (!!!). I was going to leave Gorgas Library, head to a parlor and get my phoenix. I chose this image because I'm making some changes in my life that will make it a better place, not only for me, but also for the people who have to put up with me :D
After I got here to D.C. though, I began to wonder, why not get the tattoo here (where I'm having a blast) instead of T-town (which I hate)? So I got the yellow pages out and spent a couple of hours surfing the websites of local tattoo parlors before settling on Jinx Proof in Georgetown. I'll have to add the link later...these vendor sponsored internet cafes do not let you have more than one search window up at a time...sucks. Katie and I windowshopped until time for my appointment then we went in. My tattooer was Eric Owen Doyle and he rocked! ! ! Katie and I had the best time and my tattoo is B-U-tiful! I'll post a photo as soon as I can but unfortunately I left all the cables for that at home. The tattoo is on the inside of my right forearm, about the size of, or maybe just a bit bigger than, a 3X5 index card! I love it and it is just what I wanted. Eric told us that he'd gotten WAY more business from the librarians in town for the conference (I was apparently the 4th one he'd tattooed this week) than he had when the last biker convention had come through! Take that, America! When he said that, the other tattoo artist in the room said, "We like the librarians better than the bikers. You guys are HARD!" Needless to say, Katie and I were rolling AND having a gr8 time! The tattoo itself wasn't so bad until it got to the bend in my elbow...that's some soft, sensitive skin there, people!
Afterward, Eric pointed us towards a great pizza place right across the street from the shop, Paradiso Pizzaria. The menu for food was one laminated sheet of paper, front and back. The beer menu I estimate to have been 8 or 9 pages long. I ordered some kind of Canadian fruit beer made from green apples, Ephemerée, and it was okay but I just don't care for beer as a general rule. However, this was an unparalleled opportunity that I could not pass up. There were beers from everywhere! Anyway, when we got ready to leave the waiter brought the check and said that Eric had paid for our beers! It was VERY cool! In appreciation, I just shipped him a Nancy Pearl Deluxe Librarian Action Figure with Shushing Action and a nice thank you note. He had other action figures around his station, including Vlad the Impaler who DEFINITELY needs a librarian in his little plastic life ;D
Yesterday would have been interesting if my feet hadn't hurt so badly! We were taking an Insider's Guide to Capitol Hill tour through PLA (public library association/part of ALA) and the tour guide asked if anyone would like to visit their state's House Representative. C said yes and we ended up ditching the PLA tour for a staffer-led tour of the Capitol building itself, including getting to go into the House room and watch a session of the House of Representatives. It's the same room where the President gives the State of the Union Address and it seemed alot bigger on television. Our session involved a gavel, a court reporter, and the person talking saying the session had been called to order to pass the motion that the House would be at recess until 2pm. As it was 12:30, we thankfully left. The wording on that is wrong, but I don't remember exactly what was said because I was bored as hell and ready to leave. We'd had to stand (STAND) in line for a total of about an hour or two to get through all of the various security checkpoints and my patience dwindled, wore thin, then eventually gave out all together.
Afterward, Katie and I rushed off to the Friends of Libraries of the USA (FOLUSA) Gala Author Tea, which was great and let me tell you why! ! ! I had my second shot at Markus Zusak! His books had not made it to the tea (which was very ironic because they were going to be giving away copies of The Book Thief) but I did get him to autograph my program AND to pose for a picture with me (which will be up ASAP). The other authors in attendance included Joyce Carol Oates, Susan Vreeland, Frank Delaney, and Eileen Gouge. It was very cha, cha.
Our dinner was at Mount Vernon. We got to take and after-hours tour of the new museum AND the mansion itself. Our tour guide even let us take pictures which is a strict no-no during normal operating hours. The guide did preface it by saying not to go overboard with the photos, so I made it a point to choose ONE ITEM in each room that I wanted to photograph and that was it. Our guide was the best I've seen in any tour, ever. Very enthusiastic with a sincere passion for history and a genuine love of Mount Vernon and the history of the Washington family. It was a very unforgetable and patriotic experience.
I was very sad that Katie left to go home this morning so I've been on my own. C, E, and S went to Library Day on the Hill where librarians are going to speak to their state senators and house representatives for the day. I skipped out because I jsut COULD NOT do it again today. It just wasn't happening. So I had breakfast with Katie before she left, took a last swing through the exhibits to see if I could finagle anymore free stuff, and shipped some stuff home. We have dinner reservations at a Meditterranean (sp?) restaurant tonight and then it will be time to pack up. Our flight leaves tomorrow afternoon but I'm not sure what our plans are for the morning. I for one am ready to go home. I am just not at all a city girl and the crush of people is making me crazy! I still have 2 more days on my last petsitting job before I can go home and I am SO ready for my own house and bed again. I've been pettsitting since June 8th and it has gotten old to say the least. My last class (that's LAST CLASS, people!) is on Friday and Saturday and I think I'll just schedule a nice coma for Sunday with a possibility of laundry, but that will be IT!
For me, tired and grumpy have only one cure and that is sleep.
That's all for today...I'll get back here (this blog, not Washington D.C.) when I can.
¡Buenos tardes!
htw
After I got here to D.C. though, I began to wonder, why not get the tattoo here (where I'm having a blast) instead of T-town (which I hate)? So I got the yellow pages out and spent a couple of hours surfing the websites of local tattoo parlors before settling on Jinx Proof in Georgetown. I'll have to add the link later...these vendor sponsored internet cafes do not let you have more than one search window up at a time...sucks. Katie and I windowshopped until time for my appointment then we went in. My tattooer was Eric Owen Doyle and he rocked! ! ! Katie and I had the best time and my tattoo is B-U-tiful! I'll post a photo as soon as I can but unfortunately I left all the cables for that at home. The tattoo is on the inside of my right forearm, about the size of, or maybe just a bit bigger than, a 3X5 index card! I love it and it is just what I wanted. Eric told us that he'd gotten WAY more business from the librarians in town for the conference (I was apparently the 4th one he'd tattooed this week) than he had when the last biker convention had come through! Take that, America! When he said that, the other tattoo artist in the room said, "We like the librarians better than the bikers. You guys are HARD!" Needless to say, Katie and I were rolling AND having a gr8 time! The tattoo itself wasn't so bad until it got to the bend in my elbow...that's some soft, sensitive skin there, people!
Afterward, Eric pointed us towards a great pizza place right across the street from the shop, Paradiso Pizzaria. The menu for food was one laminated sheet of paper, front and back. The beer menu I estimate to have been 8 or 9 pages long. I ordered some kind of Canadian fruit beer made from green apples, Ephemerée, and it was okay but I just don't care for beer as a general rule. However, this was an unparalleled opportunity that I could not pass up. There were beers from everywhere! Anyway, when we got ready to leave the waiter brought the check and said that Eric had paid for our beers! It was VERY cool! In appreciation, I just shipped him a Nancy Pearl Deluxe Librarian Action Figure with Shushing Action and a nice thank you note. He had other action figures around his station, including Vlad the Impaler who DEFINITELY needs a librarian in his little plastic life ;D
Yesterday would have been interesting if my feet hadn't hurt so badly! We were taking an Insider's Guide to Capitol Hill tour through PLA (public library association/part of ALA) and the tour guide asked if anyone would like to visit their state's House Representative. C said yes and we ended up ditching the PLA tour for a staffer-led tour of the Capitol building itself, including getting to go into the House room and watch a session of the House of Representatives. It's the same room where the President gives the State of the Union Address and it seemed alot bigger on television. Our session involved a gavel, a court reporter, and the person talking saying the session had been called to order to pass the motion that the House would be at recess until 2pm. As it was 12:30, we thankfully left. The wording on that is wrong, but I don't remember exactly what was said because I was bored as hell and ready to leave. We'd had to stand (STAND) in line for a total of about an hour or two to get through all of the various security checkpoints and my patience dwindled, wore thin, then eventually gave out all together.
Afterward, Katie and I rushed off to the Friends of Libraries of the USA (FOLUSA) Gala Author Tea, which was great and let me tell you why! ! ! I had my second shot at Markus Zusak! His books had not made it to the tea (which was very ironic because they were going to be giving away copies of The Book Thief) but I did get him to autograph my program AND to pose for a picture with me (which will be up ASAP). The other authors in attendance included Joyce Carol Oates, Susan Vreeland, Frank Delaney, and Eileen Gouge. It was very cha, cha.
Our dinner was at Mount Vernon. We got to take and after-hours tour of the new museum AND the mansion itself. Our tour guide even let us take pictures which is a strict no-no during normal operating hours. The guide did preface it by saying not to go overboard with the photos, so I made it a point to choose ONE ITEM in each room that I wanted to photograph and that was it. Our guide was the best I've seen in any tour, ever. Very enthusiastic with a sincere passion for history and a genuine love of Mount Vernon and the history of the Washington family. It was a very unforgetable and patriotic experience.
I was very sad that Katie left to go home this morning so I've been on my own. C, E, and S went to Library Day on the Hill where librarians are going to speak to their state senators and house representatives for the day. I skipped out because I jsut COULD NOT do it again today. It just wasn't happening. So I had breakfast with Katie before she left, took a last swing through the exhibits to see if I could finagle anymore free stuff, and shipped some stuff home. We have dinner reservations at a Meditterranean (sp?) restaurant tonight and then it will be time to pack up. Our flight leaves tomorrow afternoon but I'm not sure what our plans are for the morning. I for one am ready to go home. I am just not at all a city girl and the crush of people is making me crazy! I still have 2 more days on my last petsitting job before I can go home and I am SO ready for my own house and bed again. I've been pettsitting since June 8th and it has gotten old to say the least. My last class (that's LAST CLASS, people!) is on Friday and Saturday and I think I'll just schedule a nice coma for Sunday with a possibility of laundry, but that will be IT!
For me, tired and grumpy have only one cure and that is sleep.
That's all for today...I'll get back here (this blog, not Washington D.C.) when I can.
¡Buenos tardes!
htw
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Saturday madness
so Sat. was a whirlwind first tour around the gigantic exhibit floor. I got tons of free books and had to ship my first box back home (I'm now working on my second). The day was fairly uneventful other than that until ~4pm. E called to say that there would be a party for HP and the Deathly Hallows at the publisher's booth so we went over to meet her. She and K had cake and ice cream AND E told me that Markus Zusak was over at Baker & Taylor signing books until 4:30! Now, I hauled @$$ over there as fast as my rolling cart would allow because I love, love, love Zusak and Ed Kennedy and I wanted to tell him so. I was in luck because there were only 2 people in line and I swiftly got a pen and camera out and I was set. Unfortunately for me and my sensitive heart, the promo lady said the signing was closed and would not let me in! I was heart broken! The horror! The whore! (sorry Shelb, cover your eyes!)
So my revenge will be to get on his website, effusively praise the books and his writing, mention that Satan needs his front line staff back since I could not even speak to an author I admire, and wish him the best for the future. I'll still read his books, but that really hurt my feelings. He's not an exceptionally well known author here and it wasn't like he was being mobbed or anything! Maybe it was the desperate joy on my face ;D
Anyway....we went to a dinner hosted by BWI at a very swank hotel, then on to the Scholarship Bash at some other place. They had this comedy troupe called the Capitol Steps and I was kinda bored. I don't follow politics so I didn't have a cultural base for the skits to be funny and I didn't want to have to ask what they meant. They did spoof the astronaugt (sp?) chick in diapers (Depends for Psychos I believe was the label) and I thought that was hilarious but much of the rest of it passed me by...plus, my buzz from all the wine at dinner was passing and I was getting sleepy. So a successful (except for the Zusak incident) day at ALA on Sat.
Today, so far, has been exceptionally productive. K and I have seen Nancy Pearl and I got her to autograph a copy of Book Lust AND the Nancy Pearl Action Figure with Shushing Action! We also heard the fall book line up for HarperCollins and Random House. Oh, yesterday I learned about a new scifi/fant imprint coming in the fall, Orbit! It is the number one scifi/fant publisher in the UK and they are coming here. I got 6 free galleys and there were ALL keepers! Exciting stuff.
K and I just finished a pizza from Wolfgang Puck Express (I asked K if that was an oxymoron) that was decent but the find of the afternoon sat down at the table next to us. I have no explanation for what that was, but I will get the photo up ASAP. Think Mike Myers from Wayne's World with HUGE hornrimmed glasses, a red mum pinned to his black t-shirt, and a greasy mulletl...and he was a librarian! It is crap like that that will be the downfall of this profession. Anyway, we took an illicit photo which I'll post when I can.
You'll never guess what's on the agenda for tonight!
¡Adiós!
htw
So my revenge will be to get on his website, effusively praise the books and his writing, mention that Satan needs his front line staff back since I could not even speak to an author I admire, and wish him the best for the future. I'll still read his books, but that really hurt my feelings. He's not an exceptionally well known author here and it wasn't like he was being mobbed or anything! Maybe it was the desperate joy on my face ;D
Anyway....we went to a dinner hosted by BWI at a very swank hotel, then on to the Scholarship Bash at some other place. They had this comedy troupe called the Capitol Steps and I was kinda bored. I don't follow politics so I didn't have a cultural base for the skits to be funny and I didn't want to have to ask what they meant. They did spoof the astronaugt (sp?) chick in diapers (Depends for Psychos I believe was the label) and I thought that was hilarious but much of the rest of it passed me by...plus, my buzz from all the wine at dinner was passing and I was getting sleepy. So a successful (except for the Zusak incident) day at ALA on Sat.
Today, so far, has been exceptionally productive. K and I have seen Nancy Pearl and I got her to autograph a copy of Book Lust AND the Nancy Pearl Action Figure with Shushing Action! We also heard the fall book line up for HarperCollins and Random House. Oh, yesterday I learned about a new scifi/fant imprint coming in the fall, Orbit! It is the number one scifi/fant publisher in the UK and they are coming here. I got 6 free galleys and there were ALL keepers! Exciting stuff.
K and I just finished a pizza from Wolfgang Puck Express (I asked K if that was an oxymoron) that was decent but the find of the afternoon sat down at the table next to us. I have no explanation for what that was, but I will get the photo up ASAP. Think Mike Myers from Wayne's World with HUGE hornrimmed glasses, a red mum pinned to his black t-shirt, and a greasy mulletl...and he was a librarian! It is crap like that that will be the downfall of this profession. Anyway, we took an illicit photo which I'll post when I can.
You'll never guess what's on the agenda for tonight!
¡Adiós!
htw
Saturday, June 23, 2007
on the way to ALA
after arriving at the airport shortly before 7am yesterday morning, I stood in the security line 4EVER! Go TSA, I appreciate your interest in my safety! Our flight departed on time and in relative comfort...I do so LOVE having to ask for ye ol' belt extender.... We had a little time for our flight change in Charlotte so that was not such a rush, but let me tell you...the landing at Reagan International in D.C. was horr-i-ble. I was not a bit motion sick till then. The situation was as follows
- The descent was the steepest I've ever experienced. I had to put my hand on the seat in front of me to keep from sliding forward.
- The plane was rocking from side to side.
- I've been on a skid pad in a car, so I know what a skid feels like. The back end of the plane was sliding around to the right.
Luckily for us, the pilot straightened up at what felt like the last instance before the wheels kissed the tarmac. I had visions of hitting the runway at an angle. I was glad to set my feet on solid ground and my stomach was happy about it too.
Strangely, as soon as we got off the plane I noticed an odd odor. Now I didn't see any water in any direction from the view I had at that time, but that's what it smelled like...brackish, bay water...just a teensy bit fishy and A LOT gamey. Outside it was a little better, but not much. I went on to experience varying degrees of similar smells for the rest of the day...who knows?
On the pleasant side, it was about 75 degrees outside and fairly dry as opposed to the 98 degree, 60% humidity I'd left only a few hours beforehand. We've enjoyed beautiful weather so far but it is expected to warm up everyday.
Our rooms were not ready so we went to get some lunch and check in at the Convention Center. Lunch was at a great restaurant called Matchstick where I had a fresh portabello pizza with spicy marinated artichokes and their house drink, a gingersnap (which tasted like punch and packed one as well). Hopefully we can go back before we leave! ;D
The crowd at the Convention Center was CRAZY and we spent a solid hour just getting through the various lines to get our conference badges, event tickets and so forth. By the time we got back, I was beyond sweaty and gross, my feet hurt, I was about to thirst to death and all I wanted was some air conditioning and to sit, preferably lay down. After getting up to the 5th floor with my heavy luggage and lugging it down the 5 miles of hallway to my room, the magnetic key didn't work. I'll allow you to imagine my thoughts at this time. I dropped off my bags at my coworkers room and ventured out to get a working key.
After only a small lie-down break, the others in my party wanted to go over to the Smithsonian portrait gallery. Fine. But I quickly discovered that I like my paintings with stuff in them, not just a person staring out at me. I did see one of Walt Whitman and one of Edgar Allan Poe, both of which would look stunning in my living room...go figure.
We did go on a monument tour, where the guide was a Bob Saget wannabee (as if I need to say that it was not in a good way). After three hours, we were all ready to strangle her but I did see the Washington Monument, a distant glimpse of the White House, Jefferson Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, the FDR Memorial and, since our tour guide got lost, an indepth tour of the Pentagon parking lot followed by a 30 second drive around the Iwo Jima Memorial. She said (and I quote), "it's on your left, we'll try to go slow." Barely saw it.
Dinner followed at a restaraunt I won't name lest it be misconstrued as a recommendation. Our waitress was fresh off the boat from Muldavia (according to the bartender; does anyone know where that is or if I even spelled it correctly?) so no one got what they ordered and we were there for going on two hours for hamburgers and chips. I crawled back into the hotel ~1am and reposed into a state of unconsciousness as soon as possible.
...as I am off to do now since it is 11:30 here and I have an 8am meeting blocks away. I love cabs, even when I don't what the driver is saying to me :)
Tomorrow, I'll tell you about the heartbreaking tragedy that I experienced this evening and how I am plotting my dastardly revenge against who ever will choose to be emotionally damaged by it.
Good night from our nation's capital!
htw
Thursday, June 21, 2007
nearly done
Just a little more packing to do...this lovely little device most especially...and I'll be ready to fly out in the a.m. I'm always a little nervous before a flight. I'm not sure why since I'm not afraid to fly, just general anxiety. I decided against the PlayAWAY because I didn't want to have to lug batteries around to keep it playing so the Mp3 is charging as we speak. It's a 15 hour battery and I'm taking my laptop so I should be well stocked since I have 4 books to choose from. I always like to have a choice in case I end up not liking one. So, off to D.C.
catch you on the flip side!
htw
catch you on the flip side!
htw
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
3 more days....
....to ALA!
For those not in the know, that's the American Library Association, the national professional organization for librarians. The annual convention is in Washington D.C. this year! I have never been and am terribly excited about seeing all the stuff that, to this point, I've only seen on tv. Will it look the same I wonder? I sure hope not. My flight leaves at 8am Friday morning, my mom is seeing me off at the airport to I don't have to pay 80 million dollars to get it out of airport hock when I get back, and I am trying to map out my packing strategy. I'm a really bad packer...I start off with a plan, panic and throw everything in the poor suitcase resulting in zipping difficulties. I'm hoping that turning 30 will have some affect on the situation but I won't be holding my breath.
For those not in the know, that's the American Library Association, the national professional organization for librarians. The annual convention is in Washington D.C. this year! I have never been and am terribly excited about seeing all the stuff that, to this point, I've only seen on tv. Will it look the same I wonder? I sure hope not. My flight leaves at 8am Friday morning, my mom is seeing me off at the airport to I don't have to pay 80 million dollars to get it out of airport hock when I get back, and I am trying to map out my packing strategy. I'm a really bad packer...I start off with a plan, panic and throw everything in the poor suitcase resulting in zipping difficulties. I'm hoping that turning 30 will have some affect on the situation but I won't be holding my breath.
I get motion sick so I can't read a book or magazine on the airplane (damn it!) but I did check out some PlayAWAYs to take with me so I can listen to one...The Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook (I've read some of the monographic version. It's entertaining) and The Canterbury Tales (...because I'm an unabashed nerd. Live with it.). I thought about loading up my Mp3 player and taking it instead...I'm having a hard time deciding between the two of them. Usually I just wait till the last minute and make an impulsive decision. I'll probably go with that plan this time too.
I was going to get some major shopping done today by getting all the travel size stuff I like to take, a new pair of shoes to complement the inordinate amount of walking I'll be doing, a little of this and a little of that. Instead, all I managed to accomplish was the pre-travel pedi and mani. It was a truly inspiring morning despite my lack of initiative and I'm now sporting a color of blue on my toes that would make an overpriced sport bike proud...think The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift blue. The name of the color (and I may just have to go back and buy it) is Blue My Mind ;D How cute is that?
Anyway, this is a long way to travel virtually just to hear about my toenail polish, but I can't go to a national conference with UGLY or BORING toes! The very idea! I've made it my personal mission in life to rail against the negative image that continues to plague my profession. Alright, I do admit to wearing my hair in a bun, but only because it's too hot to leave it down, and it is a messy, unneat bun! And I do suppose that my fav sneakers COULD be construed as "sensible" but I'm ready and willing when one of the major shoe manufacturers wants to make librarians their own brand of sneaker. Hey, if it's good enough for Michael Jordan, it's good enough for us! What would we market them as though? Air Librarians? Reebooks? Saucarnegies? Libroks? I'll have to give this some serious thought.
I will be taking my laptop to ALA (can you believe the hotel we're staying at charges $10 a day for wi-fi?) so if you can stand it, you'll get to read about all the great events I'm going to in D.C. If you can't stand it, piss off as usual! ;D
¡Buenas Noches!
htw
Sunday, June 17, 2007
so true...so true
T, you'll enjoy this...and agree, no doubt :D
It's scary how true this is! To get your personal addiction to Laurell K. Hamilton started, visit your local library or bookstore and start with Guilty Pleasures....enjoy the ride ;)
Buenas Noches!
htw
a quiz I will pass along
my niece sent this to me and all of her friends:
Okay, here's how it goes: Make a email and send it to ALL your contacts saying, "What's your dream?" And write it and at the end write "Pass your dream on to everyone you know."
What's your dream?
My dream is to ride a gelding that looks like this: http://www.breyerhorses.com/products/product.php?item=702
Why? Because every year in my county here in Alabama, we have a horse show. Mom says she used to enter our late quarter horse into it. Well, I've always wanted to enter a horse show with a horse like the Breyer model. I have told you my dream. Pass your dream on to everyone you know.
I have chosen to answer her on my blog so that (hopefully) more people will have the opportunity to answer if they so desire AND it's a great question that doesn't seem to get revisited very often after say....middle school. Around then it morphs into "what do you want to do when you grow up/graduate from high school/graduate from college, etc.?"
My dream...wow, I don't know. That's not to say I won't think about it and get back to the question, but I really have no idea. With graduation within spitting distance, the place where my hopes and dreams should be, used to be, has a lonely breeze and an abundant crop of tumbleweed. (BTW, did you know they pickled tumbleweed and ate it in the American Dust Bowl during the Depression? bleck! The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Eagan....GREAT book!) Okay, the ADD moment is over. Anyway, I don't know what my dream is. To be happy? Is that too vague; like the ill-advised praying for patience? I want to be happy. I want to lose weight. I want to continue to love my life's work as I do right now, for the rest of my life. I want my niece and nephew to grow up to be spectacular people, comfortable and happy in the lives they make for themselves. I guess that means I have some dreams after all but I can't think of any specific dreams like S has for herself. Maybe in a few months things will be different, but right now I can't even decide on a graduation present. One of my favorite patrons at the library has set me the task of thinking of something I really want for graduation (and he gave me what I thought was a stupendous spending range) and to let him know. I don't know. Not one single thing feasible thing comes to mind. I'd like a back deck on the house, a covered front porch, an outside faucet for a hosepipe, pressure washing to get the algae off the front of the house, gutters so I won't have to worry about the algae anymore, new curtains, a treadmill, someone on God's green earth to figure out how to get DSL run down one freakin' road in Bibb County, a monstrous SUV that gets 70 miles per gallon....I better stop, I've obviously strayed over into the realm of fantasy. Anyway, you get my point. If someone wants to give me a gift, then I want a gift. I don't want practical, useful, functional...I exercise my girly rights on my own consciousness and say I want a gift damn it! Now, if I can just think of one, I'll be set AND win a battle over my sense of responsibility. Not every time, mind you, but this one time.
Buenas noches!
htw
Okay, here's how it goes: Make a email and send it to ALL your contacts saying, "What's your dream?" And write it and at the end write "Pass your dream on to everyone you know."
What's your dream?
My dream is to ride a gelding that looks like this: http://www.breyerhorses.com/products/product.php?item=702
Why? Because every year in my county here in Alabama, we have a horse show. Mom says she used to enter our late quarter horse into it. Well, I've always wanted to enter a horse show with a horse like the Breyer model. I have told you my dream. Pass your dream on to everyone you know.
I have chosen to answer her on my blog so that (hopefully) more people will have the opportunity to answer if they so desire AND it's a great question that doesn't seem to get revisited very often after say....middle school. Around then it morphs into "what do you want to do when you grow up/graduate from high school/graduate from college, etc.?"
My dream...wow, I don't know. That's not to say I won't think about it and get back to the question, but I really have no idea. With graduation within spitting distance, the place where my hopes and dreams should be, used to be, has a lonely breeze and an abundant crop of tumbleweed. (BTW, did you know they pickled tumbleweed and ate it in the American Dust Bowl during the Depression? bleck! The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Eagan....GREAT book!) Okay, the ADD moment is over. Anyway, I don't know what my dream is. To be happy? Is that too vague; like the ill-advised praying for patience? I want to be happy. I want to lose weight. I want to continue to love my life's work as I do right now, for the rest of my life. I want my niece and nephew to grow up to be spectacular people, comfortable and happy in the lives they make for themselves. I guess that means I have some dreams after all but I can't think of any specific dreams like S has for herself. Maybe in a few months things will be different, but right now I can't even decide on a graduation present. One of my favorite patrons at the library has set me the task of thinking of something I really want for graduation (and he gave me what I thought was a stupendous spending range) and to let him know. I don't know. Not one single thing feasible thing comes to mind. I'd like a back deck on the house, a covered front porch, an outside faucet for a hosepipe, pressure washing to get the algae off the front of the house, gutters so I won't have to worry about the algae anymore, new curtains, a treadmill, someone on God's green earth to figure out how to get DSL run down one freakin' road in Bibb County, a monstrous SUV that gets 70 miles per gallon....I better stop, I've obviously strayed over into the realm of fantasy. Anyway, you get my point. If someone wants to give me a gift, then I want a gift. I don't want practical, useful, functional...I exercise my girly rights on my own consciousness and say I want a gift damn it! Now, if I can just think of one, I'll be set AND win a battle over my sense of responsibility. Not every time, mind you, but this one time.
Buenas noches!
htw
Saturday, June 16, 2007
ooops from yesterday
the abrubt cuttoff of yesterday's post was due to the fact that the object of my diatribe sat down next to me and I clicked "publish" instead of "save" in my haste to avoid being found out
;D
my guilty conscious must have gotten the best of me.
more fun was had by all today, it's only 10:43am and i feel like I've narrowly avoided an aneurism (sp?), stroke, or heartattack. We've been (what else?) arguing about stupid $h!t for the past hour and 45 min, led by my nemesis. I will never, ever become a cast member on Survivor because the murder I'd commit would be on camera for the world to see....and I thought I'd just cruise through my last class. Has someone been praying for patience on my behalf??? Stop it! Stop it now! *stomps foot*
;D
my guilty conscious must have gotten the best of me.
more fun was had by all today, it's only 10:43am and i feel like I've narrowly avoided an aneurism (sp?), stroke, or heartattack. We've been (what else?) arguing about stupid $h!t for the past hour and 45 min, led by my nemesis. I will never, ever become a cast member on Survivor because the murder I'd commit would be on camera for the world to see....and I thought I'd just cruise through my last class. Has someone been praying for patience on my behalf??? Stop it! Stop it now! *stomps foot*
Friday, June 15, 2007
meetings
you ever have one of those moments in your life when you experience pure, unadulterated loathing? makes your skin prickle? if you had hackles, they'd be standing on end?
nice to meet you.
I like the teacher. I like most everyone in the class....except one person. And this one person is ruining my hard-won composure. It does no good to bad mouth anyone for their personality, I'm quite sure, if this person blogs, they are saying the same thing about me. It's like one of those nature films featuring the bighorn sheep during their "season". We butt our heads together, not agreeing, not compromising, not talking AND when another member of the group asked if we would be working together since the two of us had complimentary assignments, the person said, "I don't have time to do it tonight, but I'll get to it tomorrow." Now, technically there is still ~45 minutes left in class. WTF else did he have to do?!? I'm just really pissed in general right now. But I don't want to be labeled the squeaky wheel since, in a class of 11 people, this person will be responsible for a portion of my grade and may have cronies. You can't get away from cronies, they're everywhere...it's all very Survivor-ish (is that still on somewhere?) and I don't want to be the one at the end who is blackballed by their peers and award the money to someone else.
oops
nice to meet you.
I like the teacher. I like most everyone in the class....except one person. And this one person is ruining my hard-won composure. It does no good to bad mouth anyone for their personality, I'm quite sure, if this person blogs, they are saying the same thing about me. It's like one of those nature films featuring the bighorn sheep during their "season". We butt our heads together, not agreeing, not compromising, not talking AND when another member of the group asked if we would be working together since the two of us had complimentary assignments, the person said, "I don't have time to do it tonight, but I'll get to it tomorrow." Now, technically there is still ~45 minutes left in class. WTF else did he have to do?!? I'm just really pissed in general right now. But I don't want to be labeled the squeaky wheel since, in a class of 11 people, this person will be responsible for a portion of my grade and may have cronies. You can't get away from cronies, they're everywhere...it's all very Survivor-ish (is that still on somewhere?) and I don't want to be the one at the end who is blackballed by their peers and award the money to someone else.
oops
wooooow!
Wandering through the eclectic selection of RSS feeds I subscribe to, Nonfiction Readers Anonymous led me to The Laundress, which led me to Wildlife Singapore. Their page dedicated to the Common Spiders of Singapore notwithstanding (T, you'll be proud! I made it through 2 whole pictures before I had to quit!), there are some great things to look at. The site has a link titled Animals A-Z with four categories:
¡Buenos Tardes!
htw
- Mammals,
- Amphibians (Frogs and Toads)
- Reptiles I (Lizards, Terrapins, and Turtles)
- Reptiles II (Snakes only)
¡Buenos Tardes!
htw
Thursday, June 14, 2007
which Dickens are you?
this would no doubt make more sense to me if I were widely read in Dickensonian (is that a word, or did I just make it up?) literature, but KT told me I had to :)
Here is the description from the quiz:
Esther Summerson, from the book Bleak House. You are the nicest person EVER! You have so many friends because you treat everyone with respect. You're also very idealistic and root for the underdog, which is ironic because you're mother is a Lady and super rich. You have many admirers but you don't seem to notice becuase you don't have very high self esteem. You end up marrying the honey of your dreams, Allan Woodcourt, who's a doctor! You go girl!
If you're dying to know your own Dickens character, take the quiz!
htw
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
This Just In ! ! ! ! !
further things they don't teach you in library school....
--exactly how you clean up a rice & broth combo of vomit from the carpet and computer keyboard....
Luckily, the patron's father cleaned up most of the solid stuff, but there was still plenty of rice and assorted fluids ground into the carpet. I was voting on carpet cleaning, but Y sprinkled some stuff, vacuumed it up, and said she'd check on it in the morning. I threw the keyboard away...just another day in Summer Reading hell and puting my soon-to-be master's degree to good use!
htw
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
look ma! no hands!
Today I lead my first professional book group meeting. K is on vacation so I got to take the reins of her book group :) I did have on training wheels due to the fact that it was "fiction of choice". There were no discussion questions or anything like that; everyone was just supposed to bring a fiction title they had enjoyed and wanted to share with the group. There were 13 ladies but only a few had brought anything to share. Luckily I took about 6 books (many of which you can find in a previous post "recent reads")to the meeting so I ran my mouth enough to stretch out to an hour. I was really nervous for some reason. I mean, I've presented at 3 state library convention programs and have done countless presentations in library school plus I teach computer classes to senior citizens...why on earth the book group made me so nervous is beyond me! But I ended up having an absolutely gr8 time and look forward to maybe having a group of my own sometime in the future. I'm ashamed to say that I've never participated in a book group either and I have no excuse. Many are held during the day, but it has gotten easier to find them being held in the evening. I'll just have to find one when I get through with school. My therapist consistently mentions that I need to try to get out and socialize more so that would definitely qualify while not making me as uncomfortable as other social situations might. I do say proudly that I'm 1000% more social than I used to be and I have several friends who can back me up on that!
Anyway, enough whining!
¡Buenos tardes!
htw
Anyway, enough whining!
¡Buenos tardes!
htw
Monday, June 11, 2007
things that make you say hmmm?
We librarians certainly deserve our own comic strip. I get the RSS feed for this one, Unshelved.
I think it speaks for itself.....
I think it speaks for itself.....
Dewey's always such a smartass....
¡Buenos Tardes!
htw
Sunday, June 10, 2007
alright...I retract most of my previous statement
A)Dr. B rocks!
B)we watch funny youtube videos before class
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYmsr8Sy4K0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIqhUCZgwXQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cCdoXIlKMw
C)Dr. B bought us pizza and brought boocoodles (I scientifically measured) of snacks and drinks
D)I hate, hate, hate, hate planning
I don't know why that is really...Dr. B has a certain way she wants us to do this and all the planning and no doing has just frustrated me beyond belief. The other team members are all "let's do this," "this would be great," "wouldn't it be neat if we could" and I want to yell "WE HAVE ONE MONTH PEOPLE, ONE MONTH....2 CLASS MEETINGS, COUNT EM', 2!".....but that would be rude and these people will be responsible for half my grade so I keep my smartass mouth shut, for the most part (I'm only human). We have to design and launch a comprehensive website for the University of Alabama's School of Library and Information Studies (SLIS) Internship Program AND design and publish a 10-15 page student handbook for the program. We have 3 teams: website, handbook, and content. I'm on the content team. I figured I could flex my BS muscles and have a little fun. We are hoping that the majority of it will be a "cut and paste" affair using the various forms, pamphlets, and other goodies SLIS has produced over the years to come up with one good product to replace all the rambling. In fact, that's what I should be working on right now, but no....blogging again.
My hectic race to the educational finish line has begun, kicked off by petsitting three clients at one time for a combined total of 3 dogs, 6 cats, a garden-full of plants to water (bearing all water restrictions in mind of course), and lots of mail and newspapers to keep up with. To make it spicy, two of the dogs have a touch of stress diarrhea (always fun) which I hope will clear up tomorrow so I won't spend all my time cleaning. To those who think petsitting is terribly glamorous, living in other people's houses, watching cable tv (my favorite away-from-home fetish), etc...just remember that animals crap and it's now your job to clean it up.
Alright people, I'm going to get at least SOME work done before I make my petsitting rounds (thank goodness they live relatively close by, I can go in my PJ's :D) and go to bed.
Buenas Noches
htw
B)we watch funny youtube videos before class
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYmsr8Sy4K0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIqhUCZgwXQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cCdoXIlKMw
C)Dr. B bought us pizza and brought boocoodles (I scientifically measured) of snacks and drinks
D)I hate, hate, hate, hate planning
I don't know why that is really...Dr. B has a certain way she wants us to do this and all the planning and no doing has just frustrated me beyond belief. The other team members are all "let's do this," "this would be great," "wouldn't it be neat if we could" and I want to yell "WE HAVE ONE MONTH PEOPLE, ONE MONTH....2 CLASS MEETINGS, COUNT EM', 2!".....but that would be rude and these people will be responsible for half my grade so I keep my smartass mouth shut, for the most part (I'm only human). We have to design and launch a comprehensive website for the University of Alabama's School of Library and Information Studies (SLIS) Internship Program AND design and publish a 10-15 page student handbook for the program. We have 3 teams: website, handbook, and content. I'm on the content team. I figured I could flex my BS muscles and have a little fun. We are hoping that the majority of it will be a "cut and paste" affair using the various forms, pamphlets, and other goodies SLIS has produced over the years to come up with one good product to replace all the rambling. In fact, that's what I should be working on right now, but no....blogging again.
My hectic race to the educational finish line has begun, kicked off by petsitting three clients at one time for a combined total of 3 dogs, 6 cats, a garden-full of plants to water (bearing all water restrictions in mind of course), and lots of mail and newspapers to keep up with. To make it spicy, two of the dogs have a touch of stress diarrhea (always fun) which I hope will clear up tomorrow so I won't spend all my time cleaning. To those who think petsitting is terribly glamorous, living in other people's houses, watching cable tv (my favorite away-from-home fetish), etc...just remember that animals crap and it's now your job to clean it up.
Alright people, I'm going to get at least SOME work done before I make my petsitting rounds (thank goodness they live relatively close by, I can go in my PJ's :D) and go to bed.
Buenas Noches
htw
Friday, June 8, 2007
live from t-town!
So, here I sit again (FOR THE FOURTH TO LAST TIME) in Gorgas Library at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. I have 45 minutes until class starts and am sitting here, practically meditating, trying to stem the tide (pun intended) of anxiety about this class. The assignment we've been given for the class makes me feel very much like I have paid $700.00 some odd dollars to do the professor's job for them. This professor is the Internship Coordinator for SLIS and that resulted from the assignment for the last Project Management class; to reorganize and streamline the internship process. Our assignment, and I do appreciate the early warning, is to develop an internship website to be officially attached to the SLIS website and a print manual to be included with orientation material for new students. All of this will have to be presented to the dean of the school. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that the professor's job? I've complained about doing projects that have no purpose, i.e. setting up an imaginary networked computer lab for an imaginary small community college but that one pissed me off most because the professor just TOLD us to do it. I can turn a computer on, but networking 20 of them, which I just barely understand conceptually, was a crap assignment because I didn't know what I was doing. I found someone who knows something about it and had them do it and try to explain it to me. I learned nothing, but the diagrams were glorious. This seems like it will be the same. I apologize for not being able to LEARN about project management and PERFORM project management at the same time! Hell, I don't even balance my checkbook because it's too much trouble! Ahhhh, just one more thing to piss me off before I leave...thank goodness I'm not planning on walking at graduation or E's prediction of me flipping them off would be closer to coming true...maybe I could even work up enough anger to moon them all, who knows? Needless to say, I won't be here on August 11th, so walk on people, walk on.
Oh well, I better go make an appearance and claim a good spot....maybe start spreading the cheer around so I'll get a good grade from my peers since WE'RE GRADING EACH OTHER! (isn't that supposed to be the professor's job too?)
¡Adiós!
htw
Oh well, I better go make an appearance and claim a good spot....maybe start spreading the cheer around so I'll get a good grade from my peers since WE'RE GRADING EACH OTHER! (isn't that supposed to be the professor's job too?)
¡Adiós!
htw
a movie to get excited about...hopefully
I love Richard Matheson's I Am Legend and it is coming to the big screen (again)! I haven't seen any of the earlier adaptations but I'll have to read the book again and try to catch the two other films that have been made from it (The Last Man on Earth/Vincent Price/1964 & The Omega Man/Charleton Heston/1971)before I watch this most current. Post apocalyptic, vampire-ridden earth...the redux ;D The trailer for this newest movie is up and running...enjoy!
¡Adiós!
htw
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
archaeological laundry
Among the collection are letters by Napoleon, Winston Churchill, Peter the Great, Mahatma Gandhi, Alexander Pushkin, John Donne, Queen Elizabeth I, and Ernest Hemingway. The letters, ranging over 500 years of history, are to be auctioned off July 3 by Christie's of London and are expected to bring in over $4,000,000 dollars. Ah, to be rich!
¡Adiós!
htw
recent reads
I've GOT to get my second book read for Reader's Advisory Roundtable next week. We're doing short story collections, not my fav. However, I've managed to spice it up in my usual fashion as I'll be bringing Laurell K. Hamilton's Strange Candy and Larry Niven's The Draco Tavern. Strange Candy was very good; I always like seeing the early efforts of my fav authors as it makes me feel better about some of my own brain vomit. I haven't started The Draco Tavern yet, but I am looking forward to it. I like science fiction and Niven is practically ancestor-status in the genre so it should be pretty interesting. He's been writing for something like 40 years and has put stopovers for interstellar travelers at the Draco Tavern in his many of his books; this effort puts all of those vignettes together in one book. Bring it on.
I've got about 20 books checked out to read right now and I seriously think my eyes were bigger than.........my eyes? My brain maybe? Drat my inability to speed read! Things I have finished reading AND enjoyed include:
The Coal Black Horse by Robert Olmstead
Robey Childs is only 14 when his mother sends him to the battlefields of the Civil War to search for (and bring home) his father. What follows is a brutal, bloody account of the evil that men do in the name of war and survival.
The Sacred Bones by Michael Byrnes
Move over DaVinci Code! This debut novel has the same roller coaster ride feel but with better writing (IMHO). Plus the author describes more of the scenery which made me want to visit Italy and the Vatican even more! Here's the first line from the blurb: At the crossroads of Christian, Islamic, and Jewish faiths, an ancient artifact is stolen from a long-hidden vault located directly beneath Jerusalem's Temple Mount . . .
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
If you haven't read The Kite Runner, climb out from underneath that rock and get a copy. Follow on its heels with this equally stunning novel which looks at the intertwining lives of two women in Afghanistan. Hosseini seemingly climbs into people's brains and writes, verbatim, what he sees and hears. Brilliant, heart-breaking, horrifying, beautiful....
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert
Anyone who knows me KNOWS that I do not read nonfiction lightly. It's just so BORING to me unless it is extraordinarily narrative. Enter Eat, Pray, Love. I have wanted to read this book since I read the first review and now I am nearly finished. I will be ordering this one for my personal library! It will be too wordy for some, too preachy for others, too pagan for a few but I love every word that I've read. It makes me wish I too could afford to sell everything I own and take a year across the pond to discover who I am.
__________________
I have others waiting to be read and some that were just not worth the effort to write about (either indifferent or just plain bad) but rest assured I'll be on the lookout for more. Once this whole school thing is over, I will be gearing my reading back up to pre-grad school levels. Any reading I do at work I refer to as "recommendation development" for management's sake :)
So, here's to everyone getting in a little "recommendation development" today!!!!
¡Adiós!
htw
I've got about 20 books checked out to read right now and I seriously think my eyes were bigger than.........my eyes? My brain maybe? Drat my inability to speed read! Things I have finished reading AND enjoyed include:
The Coal Black Horse by Robert Olmstead
Robey Childs is only 14 when his mother sends him to the battlefields of the Civil War to search for (and bring home) his father. What follows is a brutal, bloody account of the evil that men do in the name of war and survival.
The Sacred Bones by Michael Byrnes
Move over DaVinci Code! This debut novel has the same roller coaster ride feel but with better writing (IMHO). Plus the author describes more of the scenery which made me want to visit Italy and the Vatican even more! Here's the first line from the blurb: At the crossroads of Christian, Islamic, and Jewish faiths, an ancient artifact is stolen from a long-hidden vault located directly beneath Jerusalem's Temple Mount . . .
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
If you haven't read The Kite Runner, climb out from underneath that rock and get a copy. Follow on its heels with this equally stunning novel which looks at the intertwining lives of two women in Afghanistan. Hosseini seemingly climbs into people's brains and writes, verbatim, what he sees and hears. Brilliant, heart-breaking, horrifying, beautiful....
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert
Anyone who knows me KNOWS that I do not read nonfiction lightly. It's just so BORING to me unless it is extraordinarily narrative. Enter Eat, Pray, Love. I have wanted to read this book since I read the first review and now I am nearly finished. I will be ordering this one for my personal library! It will be too wordy for some, too preachy for others, too pagan for a few but I love every word that I've read. It makes me wish I too could afford to sell everything I own and take a year across the pond to discover who I am.
__________________
I have others waiting to be read and some that were just not worth the effort to write about (either indifferent or just plain bad) but rest assured I'll be on the lookout for more. Once this whole school thing is over, I will be gearing my reading back up to pre-grad school levels. Any reading I do at work I refer to as "recommendation development" for management's sake :)
So, here's to everyone getting in a little "recommendation development" today!!!!
¡Adiós!
htw
OMG ! ! !
End of school a scant 4 weeks away! I bought a huge, gloriously tacky, absurdly expensive frame for my diploma. It's really quite obnoxious and entirely appropriate. Since I've suffered for it, that thin sheet of pulped wood will be shoved in everyone's face for quite awhile. I wish I could be more circumspect about it, but there it is, sorry.......sort of. I will definitely have to take a pic and post it here when it finally arrives. Technically graduation is Aug 11 but I'm not going to darken their door for a good long while if I can help it so no one needs to make any travel arrangements. It takes a period of WEEKS for the diploma to be mailed to you (which they do for everyone...you don't even get if you GO to graduation) so I figure, with my luck, I'll be seeing it around Christmas. If it happens to come earlier then it will be a wonderful surprise :)
¡Adiós!
htw
¡Adiós!
htw
Friday, June 1, 2007
sterilized cockroaches vs. orange juice
That's what I thought too!
There is a scientist, Paul Rozin, studying the psychology of disgust. This little experiment, involving dipping a sterilized cockroach into a glass of orange juice then soliciting someone to take a drink from the glass (no one would take him up on it), was intended to demonstrate the universal concept of touch transference:
"It's a fancy term for cooties. If something repulsive touches something benign, the latter, even if it's physically unchanged, becomes "infected."
Taking this concept further are two researchers who teach marketing at Duke and Arizona State University, Andrea Morales and Gavan Fitzsimons. In a series of studies resulting in an article in this month's Journal of marketing research, "the researchers found not only that some products--trash bags, diapers, kitty litter, tampons--evoke a subconscious feeling of disgust even before they're used for their ultimate messy purposes, but they can also transfer their general ickiness to anything they come in contact with."
Enjoy your lunch today! ;-)
¡Adiós!
htw
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