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Ok, if there was a time I could really use some cosmic good wishes, that time is now. I just had an interview at the Watertown Public Library for a part-time webmaster/PR/reference librarian position that would start after Labor Day. I'd really, really like to get this job. AND, I just got an interview for a summer position at one of the Harvard conservation labs (not the one I'm currently at). So, what I need is to get both of these jobs because it'd be perfect for me.
I'm still looking and applying for librarian and admin. assistant type jobs and I'm signed up with OfficeTeam who may be able to get me *something* but the above scenario is the best I've had in awhile, so here's hoping.
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what the hell has Cate been up (it certainly isn't updating her journal)?
- hosted Green Alcohol Mach II
- turned 25
- planted my garden on Friday
- have finished one job, Fisher, for the summer (will be re-employed by them in September)
- will be losing second job, Harvard, at the end of June
- am desperately but somewhat lazily seeking a new job
- bought a rice cooker
- finished her classes and will likely pass
- registered for summer classes:
- Architecture of Boston
- Intellectual Property Rights
- started playing D&D again!
- is playing a magic user (gasp!)
- is planning for the Union St. yard sale (May 30th)
- will be at PicniCon
- saw Much Ado About Nothing (mediocre)
- saw Star Trek (very good)
- finished CSI
- finished season 2 of BSG
- is reading The Dresden Files series
- is reading about bananas
- finished the Hornblower novels
- has begun the Sharpe series
Generally, I'm a bit stressed about the looming unemployment and am coping by ignoring the problem and spending too much money (yeah, great idea). I stress a bit over ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) jadasc's new longer schedule. I miss i_m_nobody, though he will be back soon. Looking forward to GenCon there to see all the lovely people there. Must call dragonladyflame before she departs these shores. Should call all my (many) friends who are getting married and wish them well. Should plot new food ideas (trying for communal meals), buff up my rpg playing skills, take pictures for the YMG site, get stuff together for the yard sale, plan trips to museums, help people move/assemble furniture, see Terminator, bake bread, buy a pony, etc. that's all for now folks.
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I appreciate that my mother is trying to help with all her suggestions about my pending unemployment (July 1st, BTW), but I could really wish that she'd leave off with the plans that involve me moving or owning a car.
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Ack! I still haven't updated about Arisia or my travels AND there's tons of new stuff to say.
Work...I do it. I have a surplus of audio books to listen to while ironing newspapers, which is nice. I have work to do at Fisher, but I'm being lazy about it.
WW...is ok. I've started going to meetings on Thursdays, though I have not changed my week to reset on that day. I suppose I should, I'm just used to my WW week beginning on Tuesday. I suppose the advantage to starting on Thursday would be that I have a major workout the next day...we shall see.
School...grant writing is interesting. I need to talk more with Josh at Fisher about what shape my potential grant should take if I really want to help out. My mom says I should write a full-time position for myself into it, and she's not wrong. I just have to work on the idea a bit more, which I can't really do until we get a bit further into the semester. My web design class, I'm less sure about. It's an introduction to web stuff, and while I think it'll cover a tiny bit more, or in a different way, than the class I took at IU, I think it's more review than I need. Now there is a class that claims to offer just the sort of skills I want, database building and querying to form dynamic web pages and other cool programing stuff. However, that class wants you to have prior programing knowledge, not of a specific language, just in general. This I do not have. I'm going to write the instructor a letter and ask him if he thinks I can hack it or if it'll just be too hard. I have until Sunday to solve this.
Reading..."Stealing Athena" a novel about the Elgin Marbles in the British Museum, told largely from the point of view of the wife of Ambassador Elgin who was responsible for removing them from Greece during the Napoleonic Wars. There are also bits told from the prospective of Aspasia, mistress of Pericles who was responsible for rebuilding the Parthenon. Hence the fictitious part. Odd, but ok. I hope that a lot of it is true, but can't be sure. Now I really want to read non-fiction on the subject and perhaps about expatriation of artifacts in general. I was struck by how the Assyrian exhibit at the MFA didn't touch on the aspect of theft at all. I thought, based on the title of this book, that it would. We shall see.
Just finished reading a totally addictive book called "Swordspoint : a melodrama of manners" by Ellen Kushner. Really good, and has a prequel and a sequel, both on their way. This book is part of the reason I was so zonked on Monday.
The other reason was Dr. Who season 3, which I just finished. Sooo good. Really want to see season 4 now, but the only way is through traditional netflix, which is slooow. Although, coworker K. is going to request that Harvard buy a copy so, perhaps I can get it that way.
Listening to...C.J. Sanson's Tudor mystery series as told from the point of view of a London lawyer in the service of Thomas Cromwell. About to start book 2, "Dark Fire." In the wings, I have "Mr. Midshipman Hornblower" (giggle).
Major events...Superbowl. It happened, it was tense. I liked it, though I didn't have much of stake in either team. On the one hand, I can be glad that the Steelers won, because it means that even if the Eagles had managed to beat the Cardinals, they still would have lost. Or, I can be pissed that they lost to the inferior team. In any case, there was queso, baklava, chips, salsa, and two types of guacamole. Much fun was had by all. But then I stayed up all night watching DVDs and reading and had to get through Monday on only 2 hours sleep, whee!
Today I had my workshop on EAD. I can now say, truthfully, that I "have knowledge of EAD." Though not much more. It seems reasonably easy to do once the infrastructure is in place, as it is at Harvard and other major universities. I wouldn't be able to even advise a smaller school that was setting up it's first EAD finding aid. I also gather that the applications for EAD are really just limited to archival finding aids. It's not real metadata that can be applied to anything, but it does work really well for what it's meant for. I do resent the instructor's insistence that EAD was used instead of HTML because "HTML controls how a page looks, not how it's structured." Actually, HTML *only* controls how a document is structured, all appearance and style is supposed to go in CSS. True, this has not always been the case, and at the time it was created EAD was the right solution, but that's no reason to malign HTML, it's doing its best. So for no money and only a loss of 2.5 paid hours, I have gained a skill.
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Hello friends, here is your Wednesday Update...a litany of what I have done, what I am doing, and what I will do this week, posted here by me for your stalking pleasure.
So much has happened lately. The Fall semester of 2008 has finally ended. I took my exam and turned in my paper. Neither was a work of brilliance. My paper topic was a vague discussion of the power of the press in influencing the development of the English language. If that sounds awkward and confused, then you get a sense of what the paper was like. I missed the last two session of that class because I was still traveling during the first and because I hurt my back and it was icy out for the last one. So...basically no closure, but in a sense I got some of that back in December, when normal Fall semesters end. Speaking of which, this is the last time that Harvard College/Extension School will have it's stupid extra long Fall semester. From now on they will follow a saner calendar, like the one that the other schools at Harvard use.
The exam for the Madness of Crowds was a little tough. I really should have prepared a question ahead of time, since I used that option on the test anyway, and it would have saved me more time and I would have been less stressed out. All the other students (it seemed) had crazy study guides and prepared questions that were 5 pages long etc. etc. One of the questions was a personal example of a time when I had spoken in opposition to an opinion widely held by my friends and to describe how I handled it. I couldn't think of anything. I mean, I managed to write something lame about how I hate giving blood, but in general, I either tend to agree with my cohort, or if I don't, I don't speak up. Largely, I think this is because I don't disagree with my friends on any subject that's really important. But on the whole, I try to avoid confrontations by not bringing up difficult subjects. This relates to a conversation I had with my coworker at Fisher about job interviews. A typical question is "describe a situation with a difficult customer/patron and how you handled it." I never have a good answer for this one because I try not to upset people. I've never had anyone who was set on being mad come at me and I had to diffuse the situation. It happens in libraries, of course or they wouldn't be asking me, but it's never happened to me and I think that's a good thing.
Job interviews, let me have them. I have a few applications out and a list of about half a dozen more to submit. I have it officially that unless the situation changes, my contract at Harvard will not be renewed in July. That means I really really REALLY need to find a job by the Summer. A job with health care, or I'll have to pay for it myself. I am trying to branch out a bit, applying to jobs that aren't exactly what I want but that I'm qualified for. I'm looking into IT options as well, and libraries as far away as Providence. This needs to be a major priority for me now.
WW continues, I managed to lose some weight over the break, but I haven't been doing very well this week, due to paper-related stress and lack of groceries, soon to be amended I hope. I am thinking that I may only continue with the full out plan through April since that's what my insurance will reimburse me for. Beyond that point, I may switch over to eTools only. We'll see how it goes and how far along I am by May, if I'm close enough to goal, I might stick with the meetings until I get there. I have to set my goal first though. Months ago I said I'd make an appointment with my doctor to discus it since I don't think BMI is a reasonable measure of what my weight should be (that's what determines your WW goal unless you get a note from your doctor). So I need to do that.
Also, I think I can continue to use my flex spending account from 2008 through March, which is awesome because I have money in there I didn't manage to spend/lost the receipts for. I think I need new glasses and I really should go to a dentist, so I'm hoping the motivation to not lose money will get me there.
Scheduling
I'm going to see the new Underworld movie tomorrow. I know the other movies were lame, but I don't care. They were pretty and I have a free pass so I'm going. I have Friday off, mostly. My new schedule has me not working on Friday or Sunday, but I have an appointment with Jahrood on Fridays now, so I don't *really* have the day off. I'm considering swapping Thursday for Friday to put work and working out on the same day and then I can sleep in the morning after my late night (tonight) at Fisher. We'll see.
I'm trying not to change too many things at Harvard. I worry that I come off as lazy to my boss, what with leaving early (only when I get there early), changing my schedule twice (all planned) in as many months, preferring to do certain tasks in the lab and resisting doing them in the hallway. That's a real problem for me. It's really hard to do board sets and disbinds in the hallway because the materials and equipment are all in the lab and the light is terrible. The last batch of newspaper disbinds took me twice as long because I had to keep moving things around so I could see. I don't think my counterpart (who's newer) had the same trouble and so my supervisor doesn't take my complaints very seriously. Board setting is just annoying b/c you have to go into the lab to cut the board. And it's not like I take up much space anyway. Considering that everyone who works in the East lab except K. is a term worker, in a month or two there'll be plenty of space when they don't rehire people.
Fisher has started up again. I'm working Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays. They've instituted this new performance review process that's *way* more advanced than it needs to be, but the good part is that Josh is having us (the reference assistants) set specific goals for the semester that we can all work on. We're going to get those damn database guides done, and make new signs, and weed the collection and shift books around. I'm looking forward to it. But that does mean I'll have to spend less time watching TV at work. Another good thing is that I overlap with coworker L twice during the week, so we can work on projects together. I always feel more motivated to do work when there's someone else here.
I'll follow this with another post on Arisia and my travels
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The first line of each month, excepting twitters, filtered posts, and apologies for not posting much.
Yeah, I don't post a lot so some of these are a bit lame, but still representative.
JAN I'm teaching a real library instruction session next Wednesday!
FEB (no posts, see above)
MAR What: Green Alcohol Party (nothing more, nothing less)
APR Spa Week is coming to Boston, April 14-20
MAY An excellent webcomic I read in college is still available online and is now totally free.
JUN Back in Boston, more to follow...
JUL Super suits help swimmers break world records.
AUG My fabulous housemates moved the TV!
SEP This is a good job, but without the internet it sucks.
OCT I had a recent conversation in which I simultaneously denied watching American's Funniest Home Videos and described one of my favorites, "I feel like iguana tonight."
NOV I begin, in no particular order, with the girl who wanted to get to Hartford, CT on the MBTA.
DEC I am leaving town on Tuesday, December 23rd around 3.
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I seem to have forgotten to update for nearly a month. Important stuff first:
I am leaving town on Tuesday, December 23rd around 3. Before that, I'll be at YMG on Saturday afternoon for board games. I'll be going home for a few days before beginning my Grand Tour by Train.
I'll be in DC from the 28th-30th. Chicago for New Years' Eve/night, and I'll be in Boulder, CO from January 2nd-4th. I'll next be available in Boston on Wednesday the 7th. For the week or so from when I return from this trip and Arisia, I'll have lots of free time. After MLK Day, we go to crazy schedule 2009. I'll still be working at Harvard and Fisher, and taking 2 classes at the Extension School (one distance, one in person). I will also, joy of joys, have two days (Friday and Sunday) off per week.
The longer term schedule includes fun things like my mom visiting sometime in February (tentative), Intercon in March, and two 3-day weekends also in March. The Fisher semester ends in mid-May, so after that I'll be on a much reduced work schedule (and budget) unless I can find another job.
Work
My job continues to be dull. One of our managers is retiring and there's tons of goodies left over from his party. Fisher is in finals week. Tonight's my last day of work for them until after MLK day. I'm slightly concerned that, in this economic climate, my term position at Harvard, which ends in July might not get renewed. So the job hunt increases in urgency. There's no point trying to find a job for the short period of time I'll have available in January, but I'm hoping to use that time to apply places. I'm going to try contacting the Longfellow House about summer tour guide positions.
Classes
I got my second paper back. Bleh. I could have done better, I probably could revise it, but I'm not really feeling the enthusiasm. I haven't done any of the readings in awhile. The last class I went to all we did was watch the documentary "Helvetica" (which is excellent and I recommend watching) which I've already seen. I'm going to try and do research for my big paper this week so I can work on it while I'm on the train. I want to write something to do with the publication of the Bible in English and the effect on literacy, or the national language, or the idea of nationalism/being English. There's a lot there, I just need to narrow it down. I'm currently reading "God's Bestseller" about Tyndale, one of the early translators. Most of the text of the King James Bible is his.
Next semester I'm taking a grant writing class, which I anticipate will kick my ass. I think I'll try and write a grant for Fisher to have an instruction librarian again. Who knows, maybe it'll work and I'll get the job. The other class I'm taking is a distance class on website creation. It should be mostly stuff I already know plus some Java, PHP, and applications like checkouts. Fun stuff. I may be able to put some of that to use on the YMG website.
Weight Loss/Exercise
I'll have been doing WW for 6 months at the end of December. I've lost about 25lb. and can now wear a regular size 16 from many stores. This pleases me greatly, so no worries there. I need to schedule an appointment with my doctor to set a goal weight so I can make that official with my WW leader. I want to do that before the Spring semester starts because I'm going to have to go to a different meeting then. I actually haven't figured out which meeting I'll be going to which is also an issue.
Gym stuff continues well. Jahrood continues to kick my ass. He's loaned me season 2 of Rome, which is fun. He may come play board games on Saturday. That would be officially crossing the line between trainer-client and friend, but he's a cool guy. I have to say that in general I like working out on my own and would do so if I thought I'd stick with it or could do it without messing up. But I know that if I had to come up with my own workouts I'd get super bored or wouldn't push myself enough. I've thought about scaling back and only working out with a trainer once a week, or trying out the PT at Harvard's gym. It'd be *way* more affordable, but I wonder about the quality of the trainers and I've spent so much time building up a raport with Jahrood. He knows what I can and can't do and I'd have to go over all that again with a new trainer. Plus, Jahrood is a total geek and nothing makes a workout go faster than talking about D&D.
Games
Speaking of D&D, jadasc's game is on hiatus for a bit, alas. But there is every expectation that it'll pick up again after the holidays and when he has a bit more of a handle on the work situation. There is also the possibility of some other game to be run by him. My thoughts turn, as they do from time to time, to the idea of running an Exalted game. It has a similar feel to D&D, which I like. And playing D&D has taught me that I can learn mechanics and even use them to my advantage. I could run some kind of basic plot and (no offense dragonladyflame) with no one around who knows the system or the meta plot super well, I think I could get away with it. Perhaps I should try and run something small at a minicon.
Speaking of which, there's PicniCon, and PicniCon Beta had it's second successful run this year. I'm toying with the idea of PicniCon 50, as in Local 50. We could do it in March, like on one of those 3-day weekends I mentioned. The idea appeals greatly. But for now, is just an idol thought.
Other entertainments
I saw Juno for the first time last week, very funny. Also saw Changeling, which is not a happy movie, but it is a good one, glad I got to see it. Haven't been to Twilight yet, and it doesn't look like that group of librarians is going after all, so boo. I totally missed Nick and Nora's Playlist. I want to see Quantum of Solace, Australia, the one about the mouse, and maybe Bolt or The Day the Earth Stood Still, if only for the awesome tech.
I did make it to the MFA, did some Christmas shopping, saw the Assyrian stuff. I have to say, the exhibit was called "Treasures from Assyria in the British Museum" but of course they're not at the British Museum, at the moment they're at the MFA. And the fact that they didn't even address that fact that these relics were basically stolen in the 19th century, from Iraq BTW, was totally lame. Surely there is something interesting to say about how archaeology was done in those days, or perhaps Iraq has feelings about its stolen heritage being displayed in the homeland of the country that is currently occupying it. but no. One room with some prints and drawings from the expedition and a portrait of the lead guy's wife wearing Assyrian jewelry.
The Duchess of Malfi opens in January. I'll be going with hermionesviolin and co-worker K. Should be good, lots of blood. I still want to go to the Aquarium and the Museum of Science. And I have plans to hit Harvard's Museum of Natural History before the break. There're a couple events in January at the Athenaeum that I'm going to for sure, but they haven't posted their 2009 schedule yet. I need to renew my ALA membership and possibly my MFA membership as well.
That about covers things I think...see everybody around.
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I've been really tired all week, which is probably why I didn't do so well at WW, but still I struggle on.
TV
- Watching Sarah Conner Chronicles on IMDb...so good, and continues to get better.
- Have first season of Rome on loan from Jahrood...lots of the sex, just try importing this to USA or TBS, I dare you.
- Also catching up on CSI season 8 via Netflix instant watch...couple of key episodes not available or not working, one of which is a crossover with Without a Trace, another fav.
- Have discovered that Fringe is watchable online, may have to investigate, god help me.
Movies I want to see
- Nick and Nora
- Quantum of Solace
- Twilight (there's a group of coworker types going after Thanksgiving)
- Dark Knight on IMAX
Museums I really need to go to the MFA, I've gotten the value from my membership this year, but just barely. I should go to the special exhibit, whatever it is. I should take a tour, visit the gift shop, something. I want to see the Mythical Creatures exhibit at the Museum of Science. It's up until March, but I'd like to go before that. I signed up for Intercon I tonight. As of now, my schedule : Friday night: Elanthia Fantasy Masquerade Ball Sat morning: Prawn 4: Heroes of the Sea Sat afternoon: Iron GM Game Sat night: League of Extraordinary Hogwarts Students -- WaitlistedSun morning: The Other Other* All-Batman Game I am not in either of the Marlowe games, which makes me slightly sad, but I thought it was better to waitlist myself for the Hogwarts game which is the one I really want to do. If I don't get in, there are still a few slots left in interesting games or I could volunteer and/or get ready for the dance. Arisia plans are moving forward, room is being arranged for I believe. I still haven't registered b/c I missed the cheap cut-off dates and I can't decide if I want to babysit again. I could probably get away with student reg. as I am taking classes and will (for the last year) be under 25. Actually, that sounds rather a good idea...:pause:...Ok, now registered for Arisia, wanna come? Class Finally got my paper back from Publishing prof. Grade was, acceptable. He said I can have more time to revise, but I'm not sure I have the background to delve more into the nerosciencey bits. We shall see. 2nd paper is due in 2 weeks. I need a topic, something to do with early printing culture. We talked about dictionaries and the KJB, both of which interest me personally, so I may focus on one of those. Work I'm being really lazy about work at Fisher. I told boss-man that I'd start working on the database tutorial revisions once I finished that paper and I still've barely looked at them. They're just so...icky. There doesn't seem to be a way to make a template and build on it, I can't concentrate on that, I have to start from scratch, and *that* will take forever. I may try again this weekend, especially if I bring my computer again...though that was a bit of a pain. Weekend Friday is bester's volcano party, much fun will be had by all. I suspect that there will be at least drinks and desserts along the theme, not sure about regular food yet. Beforehand though, we're going to go get tikva's cabinet from the antique store and install her dad's wine cup collection inside it. Yay display case! Yay fewer boxes! Other than that, should be a pretty typical weekend. Random Will "teh" get in the dictionary?From Cuteoverload.com
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I totally forgot to talk about what I'm reading.
I read/listened to "Making Money" by Terry Pratchett. Very good, very funny, featuring one of the newer characters introduced in "Going Postal" which I looooved.
And I've just finished the first book by Naomi Novik called "His Majesty's Dragon." Sooo good. I actually broke my rule and listened to it while not at work over the Vet's Day holiday. Can't wait to get my hands on the next one.
Currently on the shelf: "Soon I will be Invincible" loaned by bester about a supervillain. Non-fiction, "The Cut of His Coat" about 18th and 19th century men's clothing.
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Ahh, my patient readers, forgive me again for the lapse in my updates. Many are the hijinx I have been up to in the interval.
I begin, in no particular order, with the girl who wanted to get to Hartford, CT on the MBTA. I did not at first realize that she was attempting something so ridiculous and nearly confirmed that she had correct directions that would have landed her somewhere south of the end of the Orange line. In all fairness, I believe you can get to Hartford on the Metro-North rail from NYC, but even the commuter rail doesn't get that far. We set her up with a nice bus ticket. Tonight, an outraged patron threatened personal violence toward the unknown miscreant who failed to return a reserve book. In exasperation she cried: "This teacher is mean, next time I'm going to just buy the book." And that's all the news at Fisher.
Harvard...continues on much as it has this past age.
Halloween was a blast. I was extra careful about points that day and managed not to go totally overboard. Many excellent people where there, pictures were taken. Also, my costume rocked. I made this great mini-test tube holster for my arm out of BPAL imps and electrical tape. I hope to improve on it for Arisia.
Speaking of which...I'll be there. I may even, if I can get my shit together be at Intercon I. For those of you who don't know, Intercon is a LARPing convention in western Mass. Yes, it's true I'm going over to the dark side.
Our own Local 50 D&D had 2 weeks off for Halloween and so jadasc and I could go see Merchant of Venice with hermionesviolin. It was quite good btw. I'm usually happy with Actors' Shakespeare Project productions, but this was one of the more than adequate ones. The venue, though far and oddly located, was very appropriate and had an upstairs and downstairs so one could climb down to the "canal level." Shylock was funny, no really. Some of our favorite actors were there, including the woman who played Macduff and the guy who was Titus two years ago. I greatly look forward to their next show, The Duchess of Malfi to which I will be taking co-worker K who doesn't know I'm poly, but who does know the play so we'll see how it goes.
I should also note that November 2nd was newest boyfriend i_m_nobody's birthday and we surprised him at Texas Roadhouse for dinner; it was yummy.
Some general news items, some guy named Obama is going to be our next president (w00t!) and the Eagles lost to the Giants, possibly ending their playoff hopes. Also, the B-side Lounge, purveyor of fine cocktails and brunch, is officially closed with no word yet on when it will reopen in it's new brew-pub format.
In entertainment, "Legend of the Seeker" continues to be good, though at a very late hour. "Burn After Reading" was not as funny as I'd hoped, but defiantly leaves you with that WTF? feeling so common to Coen Brother films.
The Big news is that I reached my 10% Weight Watchers goal, which is to say that I've eliminated (a better word than lost I think) 10% of what I weighed in July when I started.
::Much dancing etc::
I got a shiny key chain and wrote my name on the 10% board and got a little sticker on the online tracking site. So this is very good and happy. The new goal is to maintain this weight through the holidays. If I can get rid of even more weight, kudos, but I want to at least be in the same place as I am now in January.
January makes me think of 2 things: I want to visit people after Christmas and I'd like to visit as many people at once to cut down on travel costs. So, I was thinking of either herding people to Delaware or going to Chicagoland/Denver or DC. The likelihood of this depends on how
many of the people who live in these areas will be there in the week after Christmas until January 4th when I'd have to go back to Boston. I'm looking at you guys: dragonladyflame, foxfour, worldnamer, ejgrgunner.
The other thing January makes me think about is being underemployed. If you know anyone or anything in the T-accessible area (i.e. not Hartford) that is/will be in need of extra help that month, let me know. The extra time is great, but I'm not going to try and hit ALA Midwinter and I'd rather be earning February's rent.
Last word
This weekend is the Boston Antiquarian Book Fair. It's Friday-Sunday at the Hynes Convention Center and it's really cool. If you want a ticket, go to the Brattle Book Store on West St. in Boston. Not only will the Brattle be there, but tons of other way-cool rare book and print dealers. There'll also be booths for cultural groups like the American Antiquarian Society, the Boston Athenaeum, and the ALA's Rare Books and Manuscripts Section where yours-truly will be working on Sunday afternoon, stop by and say hello.
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oops, I missed last weeks update. Alas! How did you survive? So here's 2 weeks worth of goings on, think of it as a bonus:
Ren Faire
The Connecticut Ren Faire was good. Not supper awesome, but good. Mostly, it was just too windy to sit still for many of the shows. And hot beverage were in short supply. Fortunately, they weren't too expensive. i_am_nobody did not attend, nor did the lovely M, which was sad. Still, fun and worth repeating on a warmer day.
That same day was Sunday Gaming at YMG where we played Agricola. I still don't quite have a handle on it, but I think with a little more practice I'll have the steps down if not a definitive strategy.
Speaking of games,we finished our first encounter in jadasc's D&D game, sans our warlord but plus our acrobat. WooHoo! We beat the hedge! Alas, jmspencer will no longer be participating due to lateness of play. But it looks like we'll be adding another player (J) whose LJ I don't know zebediah. Encounters are still taking a long time...this should improve with practice. Have discussed the possibility of area match with hermitgeecko.
...And speaking of her, Tomes of Terror III opens tonight and runs through Saturday night. Check it out, it's supposed to be awesome.
School
I finished my paper on time, barely. I managed to find a thesis benign enough that I could believe it, should be getting that back next week. Took my exam, and even without really studying, got a B. Woohoo. Publishing is getting a bit lame. The lecture on manuscript culture (the only one we're going to get apparently) was all stuff I already knew. The lecture on early printing...didn't really happen. Instead we looked at Wikipedia. Now I like WP, but I don't need to pay money to talk about it, even if it is semi-relevant. I was seriously hoping for some insights into Gutenberg or what have you but instead got the poorly written Gutenberg article. The goal is going to be to examine and edit said article and see how it changes over the course of the semester, or something like that. My attention was distracted because directly before class I went to a beer tasting at the Harvard pub-thingy, which is actually quite good. bester came with.
Work
On Saturday at Fisher I helped a woman for at least an hour on a single issue. Let me lay it out simply before I rant about it. She, a high school teacher in Boston (age approx. 60), was tutoring a student whose assignment was to write a paper about Pride and Prejudice using sources from JSTOR. As stated on their website, JSTOR, "was conceived by William G. Bowen, then-President of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, to help university and college libraries challenged to provide adequate space for an ever-growing amount of published scholarship. Bowen's solution: convert printed scholarly journals into electronic form and store them in a centralized digital archive that can be shared, accessed, and relied upon by libraries and their users." Basically it's a full-text database that digitizes the full page (i.e.: images and charts included) and uses a "moving wall" of access, so you can get the issues from no. 1 up till about 3-5 years ago. Journals are from a variety of disciplines, but literature is one of the big ones. In general, a good database and a must have for most research institutes.
Now, the teacher (a) had a hard time logging onto the website, which is why she called, and (b) dis a search herself and decided that "there was nothing good" on JSTOR. Now, it's a smaller database so can't be expected to have everything, but the paper was on marriage in P&P. I think even I've written that paper and I dislike Jane Austen intensely, so there's bound to be something on it in an established database like JSTOR. It turned out, she just had no idea how to use the technology. This upsets and alarms me because she's a teacher, sproglings are going to ask her for help, get nothing and come to college completely unprepared. Unless they actually try to figure it out on their own, something I think is relatively easy and seems to come naturally to younger people.
Now, the rant. I really hate that last statement: why is tech. easier for younger people? I know that very young children have higher capacities to learn than adults, (think language acquisition), but not everyone grew up with the internet. It makes me wonder if there is some sort of cut off date for new technology, the age horizon, after which learning new tech ceases to be vital, or is too daunting. It may be a person-by-person difference, but I find that adult learners, especially those without a computer in their home, have a harder time "getting it." I will seek out research on this the next time I'm avoiding work.
Other Stuff
I didn't have a chance to really celebrate it, but I dropped below 200 lb. last week and stayed there this week. I need to schedule an appointment with the Dr. to determine what my overall goal ought to be. My mother thinks, and I agree, that it shouldn't be any less than 165, (probably more like 175), as that was what I weighed during my best swimming years when I was about 14.
The Future
Friday night means party. I'll be dressing as Agatha Hetrodyne as depicted in the "paper doll" episode...only in blue and silver and black instead of red and brass and buff because that's what I have. I will be greatly aided by the motorcycle goggles loaned by the boy. Just picked up a "rigger's belt" at Home Despot and will be investigating creation of many small pockets made of gray-white board. I will not be making it to the goth night at Tommy Doyle's because I'd rather stay in one place.
Next Friday will not be D&D but instead will be ASP's production of Merchant of Venice with jadasc and hermionesviolin. Game resumes 11/14.
Which is also the first day of the Boston Book Fair, check it out it's awesome. I'll be there all day Sunday, working the RBMS booth in the morning.
Book club is also that week, I think we're relocating to the Harvard pub due to it's coolness and cheapness. Also, a Voting and Hoping party will be happening at my house next Tuesday. I'll be missing most of it due to class, unless I decide it'll be a waste of time...we shall see. I think I gave my Thanksgiving plans last post, but to reiterate: I'll be away from the 26th-30th. There will be cooking and shopping and sewing. My cat, Charlotte, is apparently not doing well. But the kitchen is finished.
I hope a BJ's trip is in the house's future so we can restock before the s-word comes.
Face Macing
Would you mace yourself in the face to be allowed to do the same to an annoying customer/patron? Should I re-post this question to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) customers_suck?
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According to SallieMae, to whom I own piles of money, I am officially "in school" and therefore do not have to make payments this semester...I remind you all that I am only taking *two* classes, hardly a full load.
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What if librarians trained like professional football players? Just imagine, the hours of watching film/training videos. Creating tutorials instead of writing plays. Shelving drills, bookcart races, stats based on user satisfaction, offensive linemen, I could go on.
Hem, hem, back to your normally scheduled livejournal. Instead of doing homework or work-work, I made a list of features I would want an integrated note-taking, junk-drawer application to have and then went looking for one. My conclusion: they exist but you have to have Leopard (10.5) and/or and iPhone, which I don't. The best examples seem to be Evernote, Together, and SoHo Organizer. I think it might be time to do the upgrade thing. I've stopped hearing anything bad about 10.5 and I'm jealous of all the cool features.
That school work is a problem, I have a paper due on Tuesday and I have only the vaguest outline of a topic. The problem is this: I like to hear about this information in the class, but I'm not sure I feel strongly enough about any of it to write something. And it's an essay, so I fundamentally should be *responding* to something rather than bringing together lots of info from outside, which is really what I like to do. Granted, I took this class partly because of the writing element because I know my writing has suffered since undergrad and I'd like to get back in the habit of good, scholarly writing. With the idea that I may, one day, have something pertinent to write about and don't want to write the sort of drivel typical of most library science articles.
I think I am going to discuss the relationship between emerging literacy/writing technology and memory. Many of the programs I found in my explorations mentioned above call themselves your "external memory." I believe that the concept of "memory" has changed since the advent of writing and print. Once, memory was all there was. If you wanted to know something in the future, you'd best remember it now. The fest sources of older information were older people. Elaborate systems (programs if you like) were created for remembering complex ideas and large numbers of facts (i.e.: memory palaces and word lists for poetry). With the advent of writing, or rather with its use by everyday people, memory took on a different character. Now memory was based on something you'd seen, like an event, but also like the written list that you made yesterday. Ong (textbook guy) talks at some point about this shift from auditory focus to visual focus. (Being blind in an oral culture wouldn't matter in the same way it does in our society; recall the idea that Homer was blind.) However, memory was still being used in a vestigially oral way, that is in the study of rhetoric. Instead of memorizing words and metrical formulas, the medieval or early modern student of rhetoric memorized sayings and arguments on various subjects that could be spouted at will, much like the current presidential candidates. Today, there are whole industries based on external memory: software, planners and organizers, the notorious "Getting-Things-Done," and librarians who do not know the answer to your question but have cultivated a knowledge of where to look. A librarian need not have an excellent memory, but it certainly helps. And the best way to counter a bad memory is to have a good external memory or cheat sheet. So, does this mean that memory has actually changed? Or simply that it has expanded its definition of itself? I need to read something about the physical changes writing can have on the brain and Proust.
And I also have an exam on Monday, whee! I've almost no idea how to prepare for this test as the readings required have little or no direct connection to the class lectures, so I don't know which is more important. It is, however, an open-book exam. A double-edged sword if you ask me. Yes I can look things up, but expectations will be much higher. For now, I'm just trying to skim all the material so I know where to look when I get asked the question. (see above...maybe I should make a cheat sheet)
Other life stuff:
On Sunday I watched the Compleat Lord of the Rings (mostly) Extended. They did not have the extended version of RotK, I assume because that version was never shown in theaters, unlike FotR and TT. Nevertheless, it was well worth it. There were cookies. And I apparently didn't miss much with regards to Oktoberfest which my coworkers told me sucked.
I did not meet my WW goal of dropping below 200 lbs by yesterday. I'm close, but I really over indulged two weeks ago and I think I'm paying for it now. Oh well, I should have it by next week and my 10% by Thanksgiving.
I did apply for another job at Houghton, as a bibliographic assistant. Keep your fingers crossed. Also, the EAD workshop at Simmons that I wanted to take is offered, for free, by a part of Harvard. I have to wait until February, but that's fine with me.
I mad vegetable pie.
I want to make a cool costume for Halloween. I'm divided between Mrs. Lovett from Sweeney Todd and a Girl Genius type thing. If I do Sweeney Todd and so does the boy, we could match and be super cute. But a GG costume would give me something steampunky to wear to Arisia.
Looking ahead:
I kind of want to go to an author talk by David Liss at the BPL tomorrow at 6pm. Liss wrote "A Conspiracy of Paper" about the South Sea Bubble and the trouble with paper money. It's actually a novel, but with good historical details.
This Sunday I'll be at the Connecticut Renaissance Faire with the Scogget crowd. And that evening will be games at YMG. Friday will be jadasc's D&D game, soooo excited.
Have tickets for Thanksgiving: I'm leaving Wednesday morning and returning Sunday around noon.
I'm seriously considering taking off the whole week of Christmas. Basically, it's so hard for me to take vacations when Fisher is in session that there's no sense saving up days. So I may take off Christmas week and not come back to work until January 5th. I wouldn't spend the whole time in Delaware, maybe a few days up here, then home for a bit, then DC/Chicago/Boulder since an earlier trip to one of those locals seems unlikely.
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I may have to own one of these in the future: Circ & Reference t-shirt. If only to go with my stylish CSI Dungeon shirt.
Events of the week: I managed to pay my student loans without overdrawing my account, huzzah! I have no money until Friday. I somehow managed to lose weight this week, despite the catastrophes of the VP debate and D&D. (Total loss = 16lb.)
Speaking of which, Thursday saw our first debate gathering where we played bingo and an excellent drinking game tikva found on the interwebs. Palin has good memorization skills. Biden is from Delaware. Yesterday was debate at Local 50 take 2. Sadly, I was absent for most of it due to class, but drinking happened and it was good. The Saga continues next Wednesday night for the final debate be there or be a Republican. (Or at work like I will be.)
Yesterday was also hermitgecko's birthday, happy birthday!
This past Friday saw the second character creation session for D&D. Since I did not attend the first due to being cranky and ill, I took the opportunity to spend all my money, learn what the various bits of my character sheet do, and generally spiffify 4th Edition Liana. I look forward to our next session when actual play will commence.
I finally saw "Prince Caspian" on Sunday. Ben Barnes, the lovely leading man-boy, is actually older than me, so I can say without being creepy that I'd hit that. (He was also in Stardust, the man is awesome.)
Plans and Schemes
This Sunday is the Lord of the Rings extended edition marathon at the Brattle Theater. I'm very tempted.
The following Sunday is a trip to the Connecticut Ren Faire and possibly games at YMG.
I have a strong urge to bake this month/weekend. Also, I must prepare my Halloween costume and if I want to enter Fisher in the Pimp My Bookcart competition, I have to get cracking.
Education
I need a paper topic for my Publishing class, something to do with oral or early manuscript culture. I obviously know the most about Medieval Europe, so I'm drawn to suggestions like "Compare European and Chinese MSS culture" but I worry that might be a bit dull. I dislike Ong (the text for this section) but not enough to really take a stand and debate it. This is an essay, not a research paper, so I need to do the debate/deliberate/discuss thing rather than take up space with lots of outside information (a specialty of mine).
There is a workshop I want to take at Simmons. I know I kinda bad-mouth the place a bit because I went to IU and *everyone* in libraries in Massachusetts went to Simmons. But it looks really cool, it's one Saturday on EAD. I just need to get funding and the day off. I am faced with the advantages and disadvantages of a newer manager. She doesn't have the answer to nearly anything, but if I can figure it out on my own, I might be able to slip something by her.
Next initiative: Lease, I want one badly, even if I have to write one myself. Also, the space under the stairs. I'm thinking with a small light, some shelves and fewer boxes it could be really functional...as opposed to crappy.
Mace
Alas, no mace dilemmas have suggested themselves to me this week. Or last week really, but I had the videos to cover for me. This week, in honor of Google's 10th Aniversary, where you can google the archive from 2001, I am seeking out the origins of the "Mace Yourself in the Face" phenomon. The only mention I could find on the original Spark website was this reference in the "Stinky Feet Project" where a guy attempts to get and cure athlete's foot:
Bonus story: after I went to college, this same bunch of guys later had another pain contest: who could mace themselves in the face the most times. And there you have it. Link
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I had a recent conversation in which I simultaneously denied watching American's Funniest Home Videos and described one of my favorites, I feel like iguana tonight. The video quality is bad, but the concept is hilarious. So why do I (and many others) pretend never to have seen this show? I imagine it has to do with totally wasting a half an hour on dumb pet videos and people getting hit in the crotch. But now, I am not all ashamed to create a livejournal post with links to a half dozen videos I found on YouTube, arguably the successor to AFHV. Is it less sad that these videos have a theme, or that I knew I could find them if I did a search? Or is it still just as ridiculous as watching a television program devoted to goofy videos?
I missed the presidential candidate debate, but the VPs will be going at it tomorrow.
The Disney Trailer of the Palin story
Courtesy of alanthea
SNL's take on the Couric/Palin interview
Suggested by my coworker Katie H.
We are in the midst of Banned Books Week! Celebrate by reading something subversive.
Speaking of celebration, who says no one sings (or dances) in the Library?
Marian the Librarian
Head over Heels
(Thanks to burningooks)
Reading on a Dream
Never before caught on film, the rare young, attractive, male librarian
Mace Yourself in the Face
Apparently some people really do. Though in many cases I suspect it's only pepper spray.
The dumbest and longest. You only need to watch the first minute or so.
The most prepared
The best use of music
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I placed a peapod order yesterday, nice and early so it would get here today, my day off, when I'm home. My zip code was wrong, I could easily see this, but I was not allowed to change it. I put the correct zip code on my billing address and assumed that they listed 02138 for all addresses in Cambridge. this morning I log on to find out when the guy's coming and can't find any evidence that I've placed an order, beyond my confirmation email. So I plug in my phone in case they call (this is all around 7am). Low and behold, they've already called, noticed my zip code was wrong, fixed, and canceled my order. Now, even though it's stupid early in the morning, the soonest they'll deliver is tomorrow at 4. If they'd been able to handle even tomorrow at 2, I'd be mad but alright. I don't know if they just don't opperate that early on Mondays or what but now I have to go out in the rain, and I'm sick to get fucking groceries that I thought were already on the way thanks to fucking peapod.
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Fuck
I just accidentally deleted this whole big post i wrote. And because I dithered so long, LJ autosaved the blank page. Arg!
So, here is my attempt to recreate it in a slightly more organized format:
( Read more... )
Mace...
I've got nothing. Walter Ong has some interesting things to say about primary oral cultures, those with no exposure to literacy or the written word. It might be worth some mace to travel back in time and see if he was right.
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Things that are cool:
--got a raise at Fisher, a whole dollar, which is fantastic
--my professor for the publishing class is Matthew Battles, he of "Library: an Unquiet History"
--I started classes and they're good
--Lia and Dan/Wren/Frodo will be in town tomorrow
--Talk Like a Pirate Day is this Friday
--Jason's game is meeting again
--It is officially cold enough for me to start wearing my hat
Things that are less than cool:
--my character isn't ready for game on Friday, though I doubt actual playing will happen
--Girl Genius is down
--I'm bored
--I may have to stop eating tuna after reading that book*
--I'll be prying nails out of books for *weeks*, it'd almost be better to do a whole bunch one day that I didn't have to do much rather than drag it out like this
Mace
which would be worse? Being maced in the face or having a nail driven through your hand (all consequences of eye damage and tetanus aside)?
Things still to be done:
replace Invishield
pick a new bank
pirate playlist/CD
Halloween costume
homework
hanging shelves for tikva's wine cups
figuring out Saturday
*"Tuna a Love Story" 2 reasons: mercury and overfishing</lj>
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In my work I often find myself asking this question. Germany being the place where printing as we know it was invented, you'd think they'd have a handle on this whole "book" thing. Well, maybe it's just newspaper that are hard. I spent this morning disbinding books of newspapers where the pages had been nailed together. What the hell.
And speaking of pain, this week's Mace Yourself in the Face topic: student loans. A coworker today asserted that she would gladly self-mace to get rid of her student loans. I think this is pretty much a given, considering the amount of money involved. But what if it wasn't all your student loans? Would you MYF to never have to pay interest on your loans, provided that you paid them on schedule? Would you do it to reduce your balance by half? Some other condition?
On a happier note, jadasc is back from Vegas! I haven't seen him yet as we are both working tonight, but will tonight.
Also, the end of the world has been rescheduled for October 21st. I propose a "Drink up the World's going to end" outing for that day, it's a Tuesday I believe, so mark your calendars, details to follow.
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The bad: my iPod stopped doing the wifi thing a week ago...I didn't really take notice until Sunday because I was so busy. It is unfixable.
The good: the nice man at the Apple store gave me a new iPod. And I have freshly pirated pirate music to put on it, arrr!
The old 'pod was called Sebastian, in following with my Twelfth Night naming scheme. The question becomes, should the new one be Sebastian II or should I name it something different like Cesario or Antonio? (Cesario is the name that Sebastian's twin sister goes by when she's pretending to be a boy).
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cranky
surprised
distressed
discontent