SpinsterLibrarian.net |
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I'm a library science student who also runs a small library in a residence hall.
You can email me, or chat with me:
SpinsterLibrarian at Hotmail dot com
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Monday, December 30, 2002
Sunday, Dec. 29th: We had the Fire Communion service at church -- one of my favorites. It is about letting go of the old year and moving into the new one. We always have it the Sunday right before or right after New Year's. You write on a little slip of paper things from the last year that you want to leave behind, and then you burn it. Many of us also do resolutions for the new year. Last year, my resolutions were about getting involved more, not being so shy, being more assertive, etc. I think that I have made some progress on those fronts. After lunch, went to Mitch's to finish watching The Man Who Wasn't There, then I helped Mitch feed his fish. Saturday, December 28, 2002
Tuesday, Dec. 24th - Wednesday, Dec. 25th: We had gotten a few inches of snow, so Mitch had come home from his mom's house (an hour away) early. When I found out that he was home alone on Christmas Eve, I asked him if he wanted company. We watched an Eddie Izzard DVD and then stayed up until 2 am talking. We probably could have talked all night, but he had to work the next day. I hadn't realized that, and felt really bad that I had been keeping him up all night, but he said that it didn't bother him, that he would have mentioned it if he had wanted me to go. Wednesday night: When I arrived he had a fire in the fireplace and lit candles -- nice. We watched Finding Forrester getting gradually cozier on the couch together. I'm a touchy-feely person. I like to hug people and stuff like that, but several of my friends don't like that kind of thing, so I don't get to do it much. Mitch is very touchy-feely and cuddly -- I like that. (I noticed just this week that I hugged a friend that really doesn't like that sort of thing...look out people, I'm afraid that my long-repressed touchy-feeliness has been unleashed.) Friday, December 27, 2002
Saturday, Dec. 14th: Got a message from Mitch from the personals site. Emailed Mitch. He responded. Emailing continued. I wrote about him on the blog -- he read it. He mentioned that he might be at the megabookstore that night -- Matt and I went, but he never made it. I was on the lookout for him the entire time, and was a bit of a nervous wreck. Monday, Dec. 16th: My neighbor, Cindi, let me use her computer, and Mitch and I chatted for nearly four hours. My friend, Angela, messaged me from Japan, harassing me to ask him out. (I felt guilty about giving Ang the play by play, but later found out that he was doing the same with his friend Matt.) I asked him if we could get together that night (I was thinking Penny Lane Coffeehouse, or somesuch), but he couldn't go. He then asked me if I'd like to go out to dinner the next night. Tuesday, Dec. 17th: We were meeting at 7 at Angelo's for dinner. As I drove down Main Street, I saw him waiting outside the restaurant. I parked around the other side of the block from where he was, and came out of a passage between buildings -- catching him off guard, as he was expecting to see me coming from half a block away. We had a really nice dinner and then talked for about an hour. Then we went to the megabookstore for a little while. As he left, he left it up to me, saying that I should contact him if I wanted to. Sunday, December 22, 2002
The other day we heard a tremendous crashing of dozens of video tapes hitting the floor in the video room. We rushed in thinking that one of the wall mounted racks had fallen off the wall. There was a little boy sitting on the floor with a stunned look on his face. "Are you okay?" we asked, thinking that he had somehow gotten hurt. He curled into a ball and started crying. "He's not hurt," his mother said as she picked up the tapes off the floor, "just embarrassed. I told him not to spin the rack too fast, and then he spun it with all his might and sent them all flying." Man, the mess was quite impressive. He must have spun that thing with all he had, kind of like those old ladies spinning the big wheel on The Price is Right. Friend: Can you talk? Friday, December 20, 2002
Mitch and I are going to go out again on Saturday. Any thoughts? Thursday, December 19, 2002
Tuesday, December 17, 2002
This morning, when I was starting up all the computers I found a printer with sheets torn out of a spiral bound note book in the paper tray. Oh, that would have been fun! Picking tiny bits of paper out of the jammed up printer...I'm going to be on the lookout for that kid! Some of you may remember me talking about the Trekkie nun who has changed her last name to Janeway and uses her real last name as her first name... Well, she is a regular customer at the branch where I work now, coming in at least once a week. So maybe I'll get some good Sister Janeway stories out of it. Saturday, December 14, 2002
 Which Sesame Street Muppet's Dark Secret Are You? brought to you by Quizilla Subject: I'm close on this one... Hmm...any thoughts? I did a Google search on him, and am contemplating trying a bit of social engineering to get some more info... Wednesday, December 11, 2002
Saturday, December 07, 2002
It looks like I'm going to be getting a new home computer. If we build it, here's the case, isn't she purty? Add an 80GB hard disk - $90, a floppy - $20, i845GE motherboard with AGP port - $120, 256MB of RAM - $50, power supply, mouse, keyboard, speakers, I already have a decent monitor and printer. Or, I might order one from Dell: 1.8GHz P4, 128MB RAM, 120GB hard disk, 48x CD-ROM, CD-RW, 32MB video card, and some surely crappy speakers for $549 plus shipping after a $100 mail-in rebate Me: Hmm...this one looks like it's for people for whom English is a second language... My new boss and I have been going over my tasks and duties because she is going to be on vacation next week. A lot of what I'm doing here is processing busywork to keep me occupied in between reference questions. Ironically, I think that my old job was more complex and utilized my reference skills more, even though I was categorized (and paid) as a clerk. Now, I'm doing many tasks that I think that a clerk could do, but I'm considered a paraprofessional. Go figure. At the end of the day, my new boss told me that she my first week had gone very well, and asked me about how I felt about it. I told her that I feel that with this new job I'm pulling from my experience in all my past jobs, library or otherwise, and that the change had been much easier than I had feared. I really don't know what I was worried about, but I had been stressed out about it. Thursday, December 05, 2002
Ugh. I got some kind of stomach flu and only managed to work half the day. Spent the rest of the day in bed (and in the bathroom) wishing someone would put me out of my misery. Mom came over with ginger ale and chicken broth. Day Four: Still a bit queasy, but much better than yesterday. We had our system-wide Christmas party this morning, which was nice. We put up a Christmas tree at our branch -- the other reader's advisor assembled the tree and put on the lights, and I finished it by putting on the garland, ornaments and angel. After work, we are getting together at a restaurant for a party for the woman whose job I'm now doing. Tuesday, December 03, 2002
The bad news is that as soon as I got my computer set up just the way I like it, the hard drive started making horrible noises. The good news is that they brought me a brand-spankin'-new one this afternoon! (I called the head of Computer Services and held the phone next to the box as it went moan-sigh-moan-sigh-hiss-moan-sigh-soundofwaterboiling-moan-sigh, etc.) My new boss' office is directly behind my desk, so there will be no blogging or posting to Rovidica during work hours. : ( I arrived at my new job just after 8 a.m., I had come early so that I could get my desk set up. I'm really glad that I did, because it was a mess. The woman who had had the desk before me had just left without cleaning it up. When I opened the drawer, it was a disaster area! It was filled with pens, pencils, and other office supplies, but she had also left all sorts of personal items, such as: two bottles of Sweet Breath, lots of Wint-o-green Lifesavers, and several tubes of lip balm -- I think she has some sort of paranoia about bad breath/chapped lips. So, I emptied the drawer completely, wiped it out, and started putting back what I wanted to keep, and throwing lots of stuff. She even left a mousepad made by her grandson! I gave it to my boss to send to her. I pretty much went straight to work when we opened, asking questions of my boss and co-workers as things came up, but by the end of the day, it didn't seem like it could still be my first day at work. Maybe because the job is so similar to what I'm already doing at the university, I took right to it. A few notable patron encounters:
Friday, November 29, 2002
Wednesday, November 27, 2002
Tuesday, November 26, 2002
Monday, November 25, 2002
Sunday, November 24, 2002
 While helping a student find information on Coca-Cola advertising, I ran across a cute Coca-Cola ad from India
Further research revealed that the actor in the ad, Aamir Khan, is a HUGE star in India, and recently appeared in Lagaan: Once Upon A Time In India, which I've been told is a great movie. Surely some fan could help Aamir redo his sadly lacking Tripod-hosted homepage. Their solution: Make a change in Net Nanny to allow access? Get rid of Net Nanny? No, they changed the library's URL. Saturday, November 23, 2002
Friday, November 22, 2002
It came from the star of an soybean. (translation from Tom Tomorrow) Me: So, did he lose another bike? Four bikes. In three months. And each time, he just buys another one. Thursday, November 21, 2002
Free up the inter-library loan system, or do away with it all together. In its present form it is of use to no one but the employee who is paid to oversee it. How nice that some politicaly conected person has that job. Huh? Who's he talking about -- my boss? Politically connected? Does he think that it's some sort of patronage job? Whatever. Wednesday, November 20, 2002
 OMG, I had no idea that it was that bad...
Tuesday, November 19, 2002
Monday, November 18, 2002
Friday, November 15, 2002
 I'm way below average for my age... "The bitchiest age group so far is 29 year olds. 29 year olds average 42% bitchy." And fellas, watch out for those beer drinkin' girls... "Women who like the taste of beer are more likely to cheat on their boyfriends." Thursday, November 14, 2002
Wednesday, November 13, 2002
Tuesday, November 12, 2002
Le Sac du Jour  It's a child-sized Harry Potter backback, in honor of the debut of the second HP movie this week. Interlibrary loan theater: A tragedy
Now, there's a play worth the ticket price. (A preview can currently be seen on the ILL-L listserv.) I don't even play games, but I love their comics...they'd probably be even funnier if I knew what in the hell they were talking about! Monday, November 11, 2002
Switchboard Operator: Library switchboard -- how may I direct your call? Today, on the way back from lunch, a car backed into a street sign, resulting in a really loud, horrible noise of metal on metal, right next to us. I jumped, and shrieked, "SHIT-SHIT-SHIT!" God, I was embarrassed... Saturday, November 09, 2002
It reminded me of the time that a deer wandered into my high school's football arena, and couldn't find its way out again. A bunch of male students ran out to the parking lot to get their hunting gear. Thank God, it was only bow season... Friday, November 08, 2002
Buried deep within the No Child Left Behind Act's 670 pages, is a provision requiring public secondary schools to provide military recruiters not only with access to facilities, but also with contact information for every student -- or face a cutoff of all federal aid. 2. Do you know who your elected representatives are? Yep. 3. Have you ever contacted an elected representative? Yes. If so, what was it about? Most recently, I wrote to our congressman asking him to vote against the war powers resolution. 4. Have you ever participated in a demonstration? Yes. I went to D.C. in October, and I protested in Louisville when Bush visited there Nov. 1. 5. Have you ever volunteered in an election? A. When I was in high school, I passed out flyers at a polling station for a school board candidate. B. I worked at a polling station during the 2002 Wednesday, November 06, 2002
Tuesday, November 05, 2002
Monday, November 04, 2002
   Okay, so at this trade show they had an enormous scanner, and for 2000 yen ($18) you could get a 4' x 6' poster of your full-body scan... In the next 12 years, nearly half of the nation's 125,000 fully trained librarians are expected to retire, according to the Chicago-based American Library Association. Saturday, November 02, 2002
If we could shrink the earth's population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, there would be: 57 Asians 21 Europeans 14 from the Western Hemisphere, both north and south 8 Africans 52 would be female 48 would be male 70 would be non-white 30 would be white 70 would be non-Christian 30 would be Christian 89 would be heterosexual 11 would be homosexual 6 people would possess 59% of the entire world's wealth and all 6 would be from the United States. 80 would live in substandard housing 70 would be unable to read 50 would suffer from malnutrition 1 would be near death; 1 would be near birth 1 (yes, only 1) would have a college education 1 would own a computer Friday, November 01, 2002
Thursday, October 31, 2002
Tuesday, October 29, 2002
Monday, October 28, 2002
Sunday, October 27, 2002
Friday, October 25, 2002
Update: I have fixed the above link. I'm not sure if the hackers messed it up, or I did! Thursday, October 24, 2002
'And we're trying to mix it up. We're trying to use this as a powerful tool. I told my staff: "I no longer have any encyclopedias, any dictionaries, or any reference materials anywhere in my office, whatsoever, I don't need them. I've stopped using all reference materials because you don't need it. All you need is a search engine.' Who said that? Secretary of State Colin Powell did, in remarks before President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology, October 17th, 2002. Maybe this explains all the false information on Iraq coming out of the Bush administration these days! (link from Ross Riker) Wednesday, October 23, 2002
Monday, October 21, 2002
This neighbor girl has an old 80's Volkswagen that wasn't running, so I asked her if I could check it out. She said yeah, and then I asked, could I take it to Honolulu if I fixed it. She said that if I could get it running, I could use it the rest of the time I am here. I had to change the alternator belt and jump start it, but the thing ran good for several days. This morning, it died again, but I think it is as simple as a loose wire or a dirty rotor cap. I'll have to check it out later. That is just so Todd.
I find it interesting that right after saying he's a fan of the First Amendment and affirming Aaron's freedom of speech rights, he admits that they have censored him before, and probably would have done in this case, if they had caught it earlier. (Link from Tom Tomorrow via David)  I kind of laughed uncomfortably at that because my posts have been seriously lacking lately. I'm kind of caught in a catch-22 -- when I have something to blog, I don't have time, when I have time, there's usually nothing to blog. I actually have some stuff to write about (Fake British Guy), but I have been too pressed for time lately. Sunday, October 20, 2002
Saturday, October 19, 2002
Friday, October 18, 2002
1. How many TVs do you have in your home? Two. One is broken, the other is on it's last legs. 2. On average, how much TV do you watch in a week? At this time, just a few hours. I don't watch tv at home anymore -- bad tvs, no cable -- so I only watch when I'm at other people's places. 3. Do you feel that television is bad for young children? Yeah, I worry about my little nieces who are watching way too much tv... 4. What TV shows do you absolutely HAVE to watch, and if you miss them, you're heartbroken? There are shows that I would like to watch but don't have time, but I know that I can catch them later in reruns or syndication. 5. If you had the power to create your own television network, what would your line-up look like? I'll have to devote an entire blog entry to answering that question... Thursday, October 17, 2002
Update: The interview lasted an hour and a half, and I felt really good about it. Now, I have to wait about a week to find out if I got it. Monday, October 14, 2002
Friday, October 11, 2002
Wednesday, October 09, 2002
Tuesday, October 08, 2002
Guys would tend to pick out several porn mags, and then pick up a weekly news magazine to cover them with, U.S. News and World Report, or somesuch. It got to the point that if I saw one of those on top of a stack of magazines, I was actually surprised if there was not porn underneath. One day, I was ringing up a guy who was buying gay porn. No big woop. When I pulled away the second-to-last magazine, there was a car magazine on the bottom! Nothing like Automobile or Car and Driver, it was a magazine for guys who work on their own cars! I nearly laughed out loud in surprise. It was as if he was hiding the car magazine -- like he was embarassed to be buying it. I love the part about the success of "cartoon novels from Japan, known as magnas." Magnas. Geez. Sunday, October 06, 2002
Saturday, October 05, 2002
Friday, October 04, 2002
Tuesday, October 01, 2002
Andrew told me today about an incident that happened while I was gone last week. There is a woman who works in end processing who is suffering from mental illness. If she took her medications, she might be fine, but she does not take them regularly. She could probably qualify for disability benefits, but claims that she really likes her job, and doesn't want to give it up. She is Catholic, and often writes long letters to the Pope -- we know, because she has asked people to weigh them, and tell her how much postage she needs to mail them. In the latest staff newsletter, she read that one of the clerks in the children's area is a belly dancer, and teaches belly dancing. Well, this offended her in some way, and she called the girl's supervisor to say that the girl is a "godless heathen," and that she does not want her to come into her area to pick up materials anymore. After she finished that call, she asked an audio-visual cataloguer nearby if she had been too loud on the phone. He said no, and joked that he all he heard was the phrase "godless heathen," and that he thought that she had been talking about him, because he's an atheist. Horrifed, she backed away, and scurried back into her work area. Later on, she came out and glared at him for a while, then scurried away again when he looked at her. It all might have ended quietly there, but she went into another department and told them about the phone call that she had made, and they reported it to the director of Human Resources. After talking to everyone involved, she decided to leave it up to the various supervisors involved as to whether the woman will be written up. Apparently the HR lady was a bit taken aback to learn about the belly dancing clerk, so we're wondering if that is going to have repercussions later. Actually, there are quite a few bellydancing librarians. Monday, September 30, 2002
Sunday, September 29, 2002
"...but our customers, as a rule, do not hold degrees in library science." Saturday, September 28, 2002
Friday, September 27, 2002
Thursday, September 26, 2002
Wednesday, September 25, 2002
Tuesday, September 24, 2002
Monday, September 23, 2002
Sunday, September 22, 2002
BTW, I spotted Fake British Guy at the megabookstore last night, but couldn't get a picture because the batteries in my camera died. However, I did finally get to see what kind of car he drives, so that was some consolation. Friday, September 20, 2002
Thursday, September 19, 2002
Tuesday, September 17, 2002
Monday, September 16, 2002
Sunday, September 15, 2002
Friday, September 13, 2002
Thursday, September 12, 2002
"Very vulgar language. Sex and drugs. Not suitable for viewing. Burn it."Gee, don't hold back...tell us how you really feel! Note: They didn't have a problem with the violence. Wednesday, September 11, 2002
Tuesday, September 10, 2002
Hello to all, Yeah, what he said. We all remember, we don't need reminding. Monday, September 09, 2002
Holy fuck! My website is filtered by the Chinese government: Real-Time Testing of Internet Filtering in China I'm banned in China! Saturday, September 07, 2002
A friend stopped by my office the other day on his way to a fertility clinic to give his first "sample" sperm donation. If his semen is deemed acceptable, he can get $50 per "donation," up to twice a week. But first he has to go through a rigorous screening process: -- a complete physical examination -- an in-depth review of his medical history -- a review of his family's medical history -- a chemistry panel -- a complete blood count -- blood group and RH factor testing -- urinalysis (Is this why he quit smoking pot recently?) -- infectious disease screening and his "sample" must be tested for: -- sperm count -- motility -- freezability If he gets through all that, he can make up to $100 a week. Sure, it's easy money, but what about the fact that he will have children out there somewhere? Friday, September 06, 2002
Tuesday, September 03, 2002
Sunday, September 01, 2002
Update: Pics! Sorry for the blurriness -- I couldn't use the flash...  posted by Kate Sunday, September 01, 2002
Thursday, August 29, 2002
 Read the customer reviews of this toy: Harry Potter Nimbus 2000 (Link from Angel.)
Amazon's version: 
"But don't let that stop you. Keep on truckin'..." The original: 
Wednesday, August 28, 2002
You're library will now be entered in a drawing to win $250 (retail value) worth of free books. (Message at the end of their badly done survey.) Tuesday, August 27, 2002
Saturday afternoon, Todd dropped me off at the beach. Andrew had lent me his body board, and I spent about two hours just laying on the board and enjoying the waves. It was very peaceful. I saw little fish chasing each other around in the water, pelicans diving for fish, and fish jumping up out of the water. Then I sat on the beach and finished Hard Eight by Janet Evanovich. Sunday, Todd went to church, then came back and picked me up to go to the UU church. He didn't want to stay, so he dropped me off. The speaker was Skip Lowery, who is a professor at Daytona Beach Community College, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and Stetson University, teaching humanities, English, speech, and world religions. His talk was entitled, "Why Would a Humanist Teach Religion?" He was a great speaker, and if I were going to school down here, I would definitely take some of his classes. At the end of the service, I talked to a few people, and asked if any of the people went out to lunch together after church. I was told to talk to Donna or Gordon. Right away, I ran into Gordon, and he and his daughter Natalie agreed to give me a ride to Bennigan's, where some people were taking Skip and his wife for lunch. Gordon drives a hybrid car, a Toyota Prius -- very cool. And he recommended to me a book that he and natalie had just read, called The Bottoms. I'll have to get a copy when I get home. The waiter was a bit alarmed when his party of nine grew to a party of 14 (I wasn't the only party crasher), but we all managed quite well. I was sitting between Gordon and a really interesting guy named Mark. Across the table from me was a woman named Bonnie, who told us about the book that she is working on: The Darkened Mirror, Voices of Women Leaving the Workplace. It is about how women experience retirement. It sounds really interesting. The guy next to Mark (whose name I have forgotten already, sorry!) was talking about the environment, which led to a conversation about composting toilets, and then over-population, in general. Gordon is really passionate about the problem of over-population, and he is invited to speak to people about it. Mark is very into transactional analysis, and gives talks about it to various groups -- I have to read about it now. Bennigan's had surprisingly good food, I'll have to eat there again some time. Gordon and Natalie said that Todd's was on their way home, and gave me a lift home. UUs are the best people. Monday, August 26, 2002
1. What is your current occupation? Is this what you chose to be doing at this point in your life? Why or why not? Interlibrary loan librarian. I just kind of came into this job, but I find that it really suits me. When I finish my degree, I will probably move to a different library, and I'm not sure if I will still be doing interlibrary loan. 2. If time/talent/money were no object, what would your dream occupation be? If I could do whatever I wanted, I think that I would want to spend all my time travelling and learning stuff, such as: how to work on my car, web design, how to speak Spanish, history, world religions, figure skating, carpentry, etc. 3. What did/do your parents do for a living? Has this had any influence on your career choices? My dad works for the railroad. My mom works at the library. My mother working at the library was actually a detriment to me having a library career, because the library's policy used to be that two people who are related could not work in the library system. I couldn't get a job at the library because my mother worked there, and I had to settle for working in a bookstore, until they lifted that rule. 4. Have you ever had to choose between having a career and having a family? Nope. Because I don't have much of a career, and I don't have a spouse or kids. 5. In your opinion, what is the easiest job in the world? What is the hardest? Why? That's impossible to answer. Way, way too subjective. Sunday, August 25, 2002
Friday, August 23, 2002
Tuesday, Todd, his friend Ben, and I went to St. Augustine, which is just up the coast. St. Augustine is very old, and not over-developed, so it retains a certain European/small-town charm, unlike its neighbors to the south (read: Daytona). We visited the fort, the old part of the city, and The Fountain of Youth! We got to drink from the The Fountain of Youth -- the water has a high sulfur content, so it smells and tastes of rotten eggs, yum. It started raining, so we didn't get to look at the beautiful gardens in the park around The Fountain. Bummer. 
Wednesday, Todd and I drove down to Ponce (de Leon) Inlet lighthouse. Ponce Inlet is another town that is still not over-developed, and would be a nice place to live. It was a long walk to the top of the lighthouse, but the wonderful breeze and view at the top made it worthwhile. After Todd went to work, I took a walk. Amazingly, the sculptures that the woman had shown us on Sunday were on display in the window of a gallery that I passed, so I got to take pictures of them. I was really glad, because I had been disappointed that I didn't get to take pictures of them on Sunday. Thursday, Todd and I went to Orlando just to look around a bit. We went to Universal Studios and Disney. This is a low-budget vacation, I'm not really interested in theme parks, and Todd has been to each many times before, so we just did the things that you can do for free just outside the parks. At Universal, we went into the Hard Rock Hotel, which was quite nice. Took the water taxi over to CityWalk and checked out the shops there. We walked over to the Hard Rock Cafe and checked out the entrances to the two theme parks. Outside of the Islands of Adventure, we talked to Cherah (pronounced SHARE-ah) who is an emcee at the front gate there. Her job is to walk around with a mic, greeting the people coming in and answering people's questions. She is originally from Salem, Oregon and is very nice and helpful. At Disney, we went to the Contemporary resort, where Todd and his family have stayed before, and rode the Monorail to the Magic Kingdom. We rode on one of the water taxis, and got to see some of the other resorts. Just as we arrived back, a storm hit, making me really glad that we had not paid the hundred plus dollars that it costs to go in the park. That night, Todd and I played miniature golf in Daytona Beach, and met Ben at the pool hall. This afternoon, Todd, Ben and I watched the second Austin Powers movie, because I hadn't seen it yet, and we might go see Goldmember. I could have gone to the beach again this afternoon, but I felt like taking it easy back at the house. Monday, August 19, 2002
Things of note thus far: Saturday evening, I saw a guy in a motorized wheelchair with neon light underneath. That's the first time that I ever thought that that was cool. When we got to Daytona Beach, we picked up Todd's Slovakian roommate, Andrew, and went to the pool hall to meet up with Todd's friend/coworker Ben. I played pool with Todd and Andrew, and beat them both, though that was because one scratched on the 8 ball, and the other accidentally knocked the 8 ball in prematurely, which I don't consider much of a win. (I did hold my own though and could have possibly beat one of them outright, which is pretty good for having not played in years.) Sunday morning, I went to the LDS church with Todd, and then he went to the UU church with me. We had a heck of a time finding a UU church -- the first one that we went to was closed, and the second one was under construction, so then we had to go to a community center where they are temporarily holding services. It was in a large activities room with a wood floor, that is probably used for dance lessons, yoga classes, and such. The speaker was Rev. Joan Baliker. She is an artist, and she had brought a group of her sculptures in to talk about. The sculptures were of: a woman meditating, a Vietnamese Buddhist woman, a Wudabi (African tribe) woman and child, a rabbi blowing a shofar, a bust of Mother Teresa, Gandhi, a Native American, and a whirling dervish. She talked about the inspiration for each, and the connection she feels with the various religions. The service was very nice, and it makes me less worried about having to relocate for a time if we remodel or rebuild our church. Sunday afternoon, Todd's aunt had invited a bunch of people over for a pool party. It was me, Todd, Ben, a few of her neighbors, and most of the kids who rent from her. The renters are mostly foreign kids who are here studying at Daytona Beach Community College nearby. They are from Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico, India, England, Italy, and Slovakia. Sunday evening, Todd and I went to the worst Denney's ever on Ridgewood Ave. in Daytona. When we first walked in, all the non-smoking tables were either filled, or needed to be bussed, so we let them put us in smoking. Water from air conditioning units on the roof was leaking through the ceiling tiles, and dripping on almost every booth along the front wall of the restaurant, including the one they gave us. The ceiling tiles were covered in mold and mildew. We went ahead and ordered, but Todd was getting dripped on. After about 15 minutes, we decided to leave. If they had bothered to bus the non-smoking tables, they could have moved us there, and we would have stayed, but they hadn't. We drove over to the Denney's on International Speedway Blvd. and had a nice meal and great service, from our waiter Tony. Monday morning, Todd and I went to the beach for a few hours. This was my very first time swimming in the ocean. Cool. Friday, August 16, 2002
When Elvis Presley died in 1977 there were 37 Elvis impersonators in the world. Today, there are 48,000. If the current trend continues, by the year 2010, one out of every three people in the world will be an Elvis impersonator. Thursday, August 15, 2002
"(We are) having a contest for the “Best” excuse. We know that you have heard everything and anything about why a patron has not returned their materials. So for fun, we would like to hear some of those excuses. Once the top 10 are compiled we will let you know so that you can vote for your personal favorite." Recently, one of our patrons checked out several DVDs one week after he died, and hasn't returned them. We're thinking about entering that one. Wednesday, August 14, 2002
Remember David's brother? The Rooster? He got married. You can read all about it in the September issue of Esquire. 
Tuesday, August 13, 2002
Sunday, August 11, 2002
1. Do you have a car? A 1992 Honda Civic sedan. 2. Do you drive very often? To work and back every day, a little bit around town. When I was 16, I drove 2000 miles per month -- these days, I drive about 2000 miles every three months. 3. What's your dream car? This is nice...but not in red. (Volvos save lives. I am living proof.) 
4. Have you ever received a ticket? Yes. First ticket: My friend and I ditched the Senior Class Trip by saying that we were going on a college visit. (It was kinda true...we drove by the college at one point!) On the way home, I was clocked doing 75 in a 55 -- luckily, I hadn't been clocked earlier when I was doing 90 in a 65! He knocked it down to 70, which was nice, but letting me off with a warning would have been nicer. I paid the ticket without telling my parents about it. Second ticket: I was driving to Indy (not speeding this time), went off the road (don't know why -- I can't remember the accident), totalled the car, and the cop wrote me a ticket for "changing lanes without signaling." Interesting. He told me that I had rolled my car, which was not true. I wanted to go to court to fight the ticket, but my dad wouldn't let me. Third ticket: I was rushing to work, and drove through a speed trap -- 40 in a 25. I have never, ever got just a warning -- I get a ticket every time. I haven't gotten a ticket in almost ten years though. 5. Have you ever been in an accident? Yes. I won't even include the ones where I wasn't driving, because there are way too many. First accident: One month after I got my license, turned left in front of a taxi that was driving with his turn signal on. According to the law, it was his fault, but I fault myself for being a naive new driver and trusting other people's signals (or lack thereof.) Second accident: One year later, the car skidded on wet pavement, and I hit a utility pole head-on. Third accident: One year after that...see question four. Fourth accident: Rear-ended a car on my way to my first day at work at a new job. Luckily, the lady was nice, and the damage was minimal -- $150 for repainting her bumper, which I paid out-of-pocket. Fifth accident: I was rear-ended by a guy in a very large pickup truck, totalling my beloved Toyota Corolla FX, which had been less sold than entrusted to me by a good friend. I was sitting at a red light, and he plowed right into me. I got out of the car to go scratch his eyes out, but my knees buckled, and I had to stay leaning against the car until the police arrived -- lucky for him. He said that he had never been in a wreck before (surprising) and asked if I had. I said yes, and he acted smug, like this somehow made the accident my fault. Bastard. Friday, August 09, 2002
Thursday, August 08, 2002
"Here on campus it's been Jesus Week. It's been fairly low key...a banner up on concourse, the occasional table with information...but Wednesday they had a fairly sizable setup. Several tables, some musicians and an evangelist. But by some scheduling fluke it was also Sexual Awareness Day, so the *other* half of concourse was taken up by sex booths :) I went up fairly late in the day, kinda hoping to see concourse in flames, but alas everyone was behaving themselves. I was sitting at the gay booth (next to the blow-up doll they'd been demonstrating dental dam usage on) talking to some of the other members...some of them are pretty anti-Christian, and one girl kept muttering about wanting to go up to the evangelist and harass him. She didn't, but she is a troublemaker...apparently a few years ago during sex day (one which wasn't scheduled at the same time as Jesus Week) the Christians had a table (sharing their perspective, I guess) set up right across from UniQ's. They'd written 'And God said, sex was good' on their banner, so this girl wrote 'And Goddess said, queer sex is better' on UniQ's. Ah, I wish I could have seen that :)" Wednesday, August 07, 2002
Tuesday, August 06, 2002
This morning, she called again. This time she got me on the phone. She said that she wanted to find out about it because her neighbor was doing it, and she thought that she must be sick and need help. Then she said that it was a young girl, and I said that she should talk to the girl's parents, or call child welfare, or something. She didn't want to call the authorities, and she said that she couldn't talk to the parents because she had had some sort of falling out with them. I told her that there was nothing that I could do for her, and if she wouldn't report it to the authorities, no one else would be able to anything either. I told her that I really couldn't help her, and ended the call. Throughout the day, she called almost every department in our building, and maybe some of our other branches. Everyone kept saying that they thought that it was a joke, but she seems very serious and concerned. Not that I believe what she says is true, but that she believes that it is true. I think that she needs help. Monday, August 05, 2002
Update: We were giving the callers the number of the collection agency, and they had the gall to ask us to stop giving out their phone number! They asked us to instead give people the hospital's number. What morons! If they hadn't already lost the account, adding insult to injury by making the hospital handle all the calls, would certainly do it. For spite, we are continuing to give the collection agency's phone number to callers -- I mean, they created this mess, they should have to clean it up! 
Sunday, August 04, 2002
8. Nature Collection - 5.0 points jaw drop elegantintrigues.com/nature/ - more info - sources 9. Main Gallery - 5.0 points fabulous decorated eggs pinkyofhouston.com/main_gallery.htm - more info - sources 12. Pysanky Artists Liubov Ktytorova and Tetiana Vlenenko - 5.0 points pysanky www.artukraine.com/egg/pysankyp2.htm - more info - sources 13. Kirk - 5.0 points done to an egg www.carved-eggs.com/kirk.htm - more info - sources 14. Emu Egg Art by Curious Outlook - 5.0 points jewelry boxes www.curiousoutlook.com/index_egg.html - more info - sources 15. Egg Art Network - 5.0 points Egg Art Network www.eggartnetwork.com/ - more info - sources 16. Hand Carved Eggshell Sculpture - 5.0 points carved eggs www.eggzotica.com/enlargements/di.htm - more info - sources 17. Decorated egg - 5.0 points beautiful eggs www.handmade200.com/decoregg.html - more info - sources 18. Jane the Artist: The VW - 5.0 points modern www.janepollak.com/artist/eggspage/vw.html - more info - sources 20. Treasures of the World - Faberge introduction frame - 5.0 points Russian jeweler www.pbs.org/treasuresoftheworld/a_nav/faberge_nav/main_fabfrm.html - more info - sources 21. The Emu Egg Sales Gallery - 5.0 points explosion www.rockyforkfarms.com/egggallery.htm - more info - sources 24. Decorated Eggs Representing Each State - 5.0 points think of it www.whitehouse.gov/history/tours/eggsbystates/ - more info - sources 25. "geometric egg art" - 4.2 points pysanky www.ukrainianegg.com/pics/zpost15.jpg - more info - sources Saturday, August 03, 2002
Update: OMG! There's a song too! 1. What is your lineage? Where are your ancestors from? On mom's side, 3/4 German, 1/4 Irish. On dad's side, mostly English, some Cherokee. 2. Of those countries, which would you most like to visit? I'd definitely like to go to Ireland. 3. Which would you least like to visit? Why? I'm probably least interested in Germany, mainly because of the language barrier. 4. Do you do anything during the year to celebrate or recognize your heritage? Not that I can think of. I don't wear green on St. Patrick's Day, I hate that crap. 5. Who were the first ancestors to move to your present country (parents, grandparents, etc)? My dad's ancestors, who came here before the Revolutionary War, and lived on the then frontier in North Carolina. Friday, August 02, 2002
Thursday, August 01, 2002
Wednesday, July 31, 2002
'Is anyone able to loan all 4 issues for 1968 of this journal? Patron is a "10." I've asked those who claim to own per OCLC and none could supply.' Um...what does the patron's appearance have to do with anything? They have to mean something else...right? Tuesday, July 30, 2002
Tony: alright thanks SpnstrLibrarian: Cool. Bye. Tony: I got his mail Tony: tell him I miss him Tony: (ungayly) SpnstrLibrarian: X'D (names and screennames have been changed) Monday, July 29, 2002
A guy that I know works for a commercial printing company. Today, one of his cow-workers was outside having a cigarette, enjoying the stiff breeze. For some reason, he was not in the designated smoking area, which is far from their flammable waste, has buckets of sand for extinguishing cigarette butts, etc. Instead, he was smoking next to the dumpsters for trash and recyclable paper, and the receptacles for flammable chemical by-products of the printing process. When he finished his cigarette, he just threw it down, and went inside. A little while later, a neighboring business called 911 when they saw the back of the building on fire. Luckily, the fire was extinguished before the chemicals were ignited. Sifting through the ash and rubble, the firemen found the cigarette butt that had started the fire. Confronted with the evidence, the induhvidual cried, said repeatedly that it was an accident, and apologized profusely. The fire investigator and police asked his boss if he wanted to press charges, but he declined. Another employee was asked to clean up the mess that was left. A little while later, the induhvidual went out back to see how the clean up was going, and promptly lit up a cigarette. A little while after that, he decided that he had been "traumatized" by the day's events, and needed to take the rest of the day off. Sunday, July 28, 2002
Saturday, July 27, 2002
While we're on the subject of porn... (That's just so wrong!) To Angel, Ryan, Chris, and Kristina: I had a great time last night, and I hope we can do that again soon. Special thanks to Chris for packing over here like a sherpa his PS2, two DDR pads, many DVDs/games, and Cranium. Friday, July 26, 2002
Thursday, July 25, 2002
Wednesday, July 24, 2002
Tuesday, July 23, 2002
a) because I had nothing to say... Sunday, July 21, 2002
Saturday, July 20, 2002
Friday, July 19, 2002
"Gaaaaaahhh! WTF! Okay, maybe you need some incentive... If you post something -- ANYTHING -- before midnight Saturday, I will pay to have your banner ad removed. Don't believe me? Post and see. If you don't post, I'm removing you from my blogroll so I'm not tempted to check back anymore..." Thursday, July 18, 2002
Wednesday, July 17, 2002
Tuesday, July 16, 2002
"Seeking an outgoing, organized, positive, dynamic ALA/MLS director to administer a city/county library..." Dynamic. That word reminds me of the summer I spent six weeks in French immersion in Quebec. The animateurs who led the group activities had been told repeatedly during their training that they were expected to be "dynamique." Their interactions with us should be "dynamique." Our learning experience in the program should be "dynamique." Dynamique quickly became an in-joke between the animateurs. We students picked up on it, and even worked it repeatedly into the end of school show.* Our animatrice was Corinne Dion (no, she is not related). At the end of an activity, Corinne would ask, "C'est bon?" We would reply, "C'est bon!" Then she would lead us in a little cheer: "C'est bon! C'est bon! C'est DYNAMIQUE!" Thus affirming the dynamiqueness of the activity and our animatrice. *I would love to have a tape of that show. Our class did a song to the music of Charlebois' "Frog Song," another used "The Twelve Days of Christmas" ("Sur le premier jour a l'Ecole de Langue..." Tres drole.) The show stopper though was the class that sang "U.Q.A.C." to the tune of "YMCA." The guys were dressed like The Village People. C'est bon, c'est bon, c'est DYNAMIQUE! Monday, July 15, 2002
Sunday, July 14, 2002
An interesting article about a new trend: black women and white men. Commentary on the article. Even in this "hideous right-wing state" I'm seeing more interracial dating amongst teenagers and college students, but I wonder if it will continue into adulthood, or be dismissed as "experimentation" or "youthful indiscretion." I hope that by the time my nieces are dating, they will be able to date whomever they want, without getting alot of grief. Ten years ago, while away at college, I dated a black guy. He was a great guy, and we had a wonderful relationship, but after I went home at the end of the year, and we were hundreds of miles away from each other, I ended it. My father is a racist, and I'm convinced that if he had found out, he would have thrown me out of the house. Because of my fear, I ended the relationship, and now I wonder, "What if?" This morning when a little biracial girl at church climbed into my lap, I thought, "I might have a kid like her today, if we hadn't split up..." In recent years, I have wondered what I would do if I met a non-white guy that I wanted to date... Now that my parents are divorcing, I feel like it wouldn't be such a problem. If I dated a guy that my dad didn't like, my dad would not want anything to do with me, and I would not see him at all, as opposed to now, when I see him about once every two weeks. I don't have to worry about him throwing me out of his house, or cutting me off financially, and now that they will be apart, I don't even have to worry about how it will affect my mom. She would not have a problem with it, and she wouldn't be stuck in the middle. |
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posted by Kate 
(link from Lori)
