wyrmofbooks' Journal

9:10pm:

When NoFunLiz's book Meme is No Fun! 1.] grab the nearest book. 2.] open the book to page 23. 3.] find the fifth sentence. 4.] post the text of the next three sentences on your blog along with these instructions. 5.] don't you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet! i know you were thinking about it! just pick up whatever is closest.

Mr. Bredon smiled apologetically. 
"You startled me so," he said,  "Pooping off that howl in my hear." He took up the card and finished the inscription:
Death Bredon,
12A Great Ormond St,
W.C1

Dorothy Sayers.  Murder Must Advertise.  Avon Press, 1933.

I confess.  The nearest book was Essential Origami, but the 23rd page had no words at all.  The above book was 1.5 feet further away. 

Also, I need to get my books off the floor. 

12:29pm:

My LiveJournal Trick-or-Treat Haul
wyrmofbooks goes trick-or-treating, dressed up as Pirate.
acsumama gives you 11 dark blue lemon-flavoured pieces of chewing gum.
alphadavenport tricks you! You lose 4 pieces of candy!
box_of_rocks tricks you! You get a piece of paper.
cabbagemedley tricks you! You lose 1 pieces of candy!
clawdia gives you 3 pink evil-flavoured nuggets.
crankyliberal gives you 16 orange lime-flavoured pieces of bubblegum.
derspatchel tricks you! You lose 19 pieces of candy!
genarti gives you 14 mauve coffee-flavoured jawbreakers.
grumqa tricks you! You lose 6 pieces of candy!
johnnycanuck gives you 17 orange pineapple-flavoured pieces of taffy.
wyrmofbooks ends up with 31 pieces of candy, and a piece of paper.
Go trick-or-treating! Username:
Another fun meme brought to you by rfreebern.

8:04pm: oh noes! Meme!
Meme!
1. Go to http://www.careercruising.com/.
2. Put in Username: nycareers, Password: landmark.
3. Take their "Career Matchmaker" questions.
4. Post the top ten results.

1.  Archaeologist
2.  Archivist (which I am)
3.  Postal Clerk
4.  Editor
5.  Sports Official
6.  Medical Secretary
7.  Planner
8.  Correctional Officer
9.  Curator
10.  Legal Secretary. 


In other words, I'm in the right profession. 

6:21pm: Chicago, archivists and whatnot.
I'm going to be in Chicago attending the Society of American Archivists conference around the last week of August. The conference itself is Aug 28-Sept 1, and I've got a hotel for each of those nights but the last. I haven't yet bought plane tickets, though, and I'd love to spend some time with Brunchers either before or after the conference days. Sept 2, being a Sunday is particularly hopeful. Anyone around or interested?

Sept 2 already has possible plan w/ Skatie, which won't exclude anybody else, but does increase greatly my chance of being there that day. 


(X-posted in Tri-B, look there for further updates. )

5:42pm: Here we go aBicycling, among the leaves so green...
As part of structuring my days, getting some exercise, and such, I've biked last Friday, Monday and this morning.  Raleigh has a series of greenway trails in bits and pieces, and in the years I haven't been here, they've expanded and connected them. 

Saturday: several times around a 2 mi loop trail around a local lake, plus out and back all the connector trails except the longest one.  Total Distance: about 9 miles

Monday: I had to take my dad to the airport for a 6am flight, so I decided to throw my bike int he back and drive back from the airport to my starting place, which was the same lake as Saturday's run.  I started from there, went south along a connecting path to a new greenway along Crabtree Creek (which is a bigger than it sounds).  I took the greenway path toward the nearer end and back to the lake.  It was a lovely ride, misty and dim at the beginning, and all sunbeamy once I got back to the lake.  I started about a half hour before and finished an hour after sunrise.  Distance: something like 11 mi

Today: I started at the near end of the Crabtree Creek trail, went down to where it hiccups(the existing properties and the creekbank did not allow for the building, so there is a detour into neighborhood streets for a bit and then back) and back with a side excursion up to the lake and back.  Distance: Haven't figured it out, but more than Monday by a mile or two probably. 

I'm hoping to do the whole Crabtree Creek trail soon. 

9:05pm: found, found, lost, found, and other fun
Found: a box of letters, cards and other stuff cleaned out from the desk of my great granddad and kept by my grandparents until my dad nearly threw it out today.  Contains childhood letters of my grandma and her brother from the 1920s.  More details will follow. 

Found on Amazon: really cool CD of 16th century choral music which will soon be mine. 

Lost: undergraduate loan papers
Found: same, after exhaustive and panicky search

Other than these, a quiet day.  Tomorrow: biking!

7:42pm: Like I really need this...
My roommate has decided that she can't deal with (the apartment, me, sharing an apartment)? In any case, she's moving out in two months. So I need to find a new roommate for next semester. Arg. I really don't need this. I've got four hard classes, 20 hours of work a week, dealing with cooking, bills, jobhunting, and trying to have a life worth enjoying between that. I shouldn't also have to deal with finding a new roommate, mid semester in a college town. I can't afford paying any gaps in rent between roomies. This is not going to be fun.


[/vent]

7:15pm: Evil business versus ... dance?
There's been an interesting drama going on at the hippie organic market and community center.

First, there was http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/476463.html

There was grumbling about it at the market, and the guy stopped dancing, but it was quiet for a while.

Then this was printed: http://www.newsobserver.com/161/story/477637.html

Fairly quickly followed by this: http://www.newsobserver.com/161/story/478033.html

My response was fairly negative, as spontaneous hanging out is going to be stifled this way. Turns out I was not alone. Yesterday I got this email, amusingly titled "TODAY IN Carrboro! We can dance if we want to..":

It's a Carrboro scandal...and Carrboro residents are dancing
back...Wednesday, August 23, 5:30 pm...

Last week Carr Mill Mall manager Nathan Milian told Bruce Thomas,
dancer extraordinaire, that he could no longer dance on the "private
property" of Weaver Street Market's lawn. Read
http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/476463.html for a more complete story.

"Today, Weaver Street Market and Carr Mill Mall put out a press
release with their "solution" to this PR fiasco: a new program called
"Live on the Lawn." These scheduled events will feature performers who
apply at Weaver Street Market and are "approved" by Carr Mill. The
press release says there "will be a limit of one performance per week
per artist or group."

Personally, I don't dance once a week. I dance when I want to. I
want Bruce to dance when and where he wants to. Please come help us
make this point: TOMORROW, Wednesday, August 23, 5:30 pm.

Bring instruments. Bring your dancing shoes! Bring your friends.
Mary"

I contemplated going, but chickened (and lazied) out. But not everyone did:
http://www.newsobserver.com/161/story/478331.html

More updates will follow in this terpsichorian revolt!

9:15pm: at long last, my vacation!
Apologies for the delay in posting.  There was return trip and then sleep, then panic about my summer work, then waiting for the pictures.   Which I'm now waiting to load and will be added later tonight.

12:26am: Just checking in..
Back from my trip, had a wonderful time in all parts of it.  I'll post more, including pictures, fairly soon. 

5:50pm: About to reset my technological scale
With classes ended, massively annoying serials work at a stopping place, and sister's research trip winding down, it's time for the family vacation!! We're leaving tomorrow morning, driving to the Adirondacks, camping, doing a 2-3 day canoe trip.  We are then headed up to Montreal for a weekend, along with my mom's brothers and their wives for the Scott annual Gene Pool trip. 

This has been and is going to be fun for a large number of reasons. 

1.  We haven't been camping in a while, especially  not for a week.  We're getting out all the equipment, measuring ingredients into bags, and all the fun nostalgic stuff of my childhood.  We're going to make quiche in a reflector oven, toast marshmallows over the fire, and have little apple pies in the pie iron and popcorn over the fire.  We'll play frisbee and swim in the swimming hole. 

2.  We've never been to this area, so all new trails, maps, and other fun stuff. 

3.  I missed out on the  family's Great Canoe Trip of a few years back on account of bad luck and other things.  While the trip we take on this vacation won't be nearly as long or challenging, it'll be my first canoe-packing trip.  You canoe across a lake, carry the canoe to the next lake(called a portage) and continue on.  The lakes are close together, so this is actually feasible.  There are places in the area where you can travel for days this way. 

4.  The Gene Pool trip is a chance to see relatives I don't see often, plus see Montreal which I haven't seen before.  Plus another good thing, but one that's a secret.  ; )

So after being immersed in the high-tech world of the internet, digital preservation, and other things, I'm resetting the scale.  High-tech will now be the reflector oven, which you put facing a campfire, catching the heat and allowing you to bake in it.  It will be my pocket knife, used for the low tech end: a sharpened stick to toast my marshmellows on. 

7:19pm: Done with classes
I've finally finished my classes for the summer.  Management was genuinely interesting and well taught.  Cataloging was somewhat interesting, and very poorly taught.  Guess which one I like more.  I do, however, have a renewed respect for catalogers. 

4:13pm: The internet is not always like the internet
This week our little corner of the internet mourned on of our own.  People from across the world gathered together, resetting the highest number of people online on the board at once, to remember a mainstay of a community that everyone knew, though many had not met.  Pictures, toasts, anecdotes and gatherings, those who can traveling to the service. 

These are not the characteristics of our global, but impersonal world.  These aren't even the characteristics of the faceless, if instantaneous internet.  These are the characteristics of a village, where everyone knows everyone, and while you can't just jump into the middle, you can become part of it. 

But it takes people to do this.  Caring people willing to try to include people, rather than exclude.  roup42 was one of these people.  He was a mainstay of this community that caring has built. 

RIP Paul

7:57pm: A quiet saturday night
I've procrastinated my homework, and partly as a result, am bored, and feeling the quiet and alone-ness more than usual.  When that happens, I sometimes get reflective. 
In my life, I can identify a couple of places where a specific event or influence had a marked impact on my life.  One was eighth grade social studies, with a really good teacher, who taught it like a college history class, and got me seriously interested in history.  This affected choices both in high school and in college, and ultimately, my interest in archival work now.  Another was the computer teacher at the same school, who was wonderfully insane, and created an internet magazine where everything but the uploading was done by the students.  In the two years I was part of it, I went from someone who could do basic word processing and ususally manage to figure out how to print, to someone who was conversant in all office-type software, html coding by hand, and aware of the growing technological fields of graphics, 2 and 3-D, and internet communications.  Without this, I would not be a computer geek, of this I'm sure, and my interest in digital preservation would not exist. 

There have been other influences, short and long term, but none that I can identify such a clear cut and pervasive sort of effect.  Granted, if not these influences, there might have been others causing the same end, but far more likely is the choice of another path. 

While not really trying to start a meme, or whatever, has anyone else had pivotal influences like this?

11:29am: mental health day
After a very stressful week, plus an impossible workload and a collection of intransigent technology, I'm kinda wiped.  So since I sent off the work due this morning, I'm skipping classes and I am going to do the simple things.  Clean my room.  Do the accumulating dishes.  Laundry.  Get my new computer set up.  Go sit under the trees at the local park and read a fantasy book. 

Tomorrow will come when it comes. 

6:08pm: new (sorta) computer!!
I'm getting a new computer!! Well, new to me, anyway.  My laptop has been gradually dying over the past year or so.  Among other issues, it takes half an hour to get from start to being able to access the internet, the cdrom drive will play dvds, but not cds or cdroms, the nipplemouse causes the pointer to zoom across the screen like a demented bat unless disables, and the touchpad stops working about 20 minutes in.  I've been doing research on a new one, and putting off reinstalling, because I have enough work to do on it that I'm hesitant to have it out of comission for a while. 
Then, opportunity knocked:
*knock knock*

I received an email through one of the student listservs. 


Now this isn't the newest or nicest computer, but for someone with little money and a desperate need for something that I didn't need to worry about whether it was going to boot, it is just fine. 

The personage in question is coming to drop it off any minute now, and then some setup, and then computerness!!

2:31pm: An entertaining sort of weekend.  Dinner with dad, gaming with friends, saw PotC2(commented on brunchma), much talking online.  A not terribly productive weekend, but I got my homework done before it had to be turned in, so it was good. 

To combine said events:

1:58pm: Some thoughts
I'd never really bought the idea of love at first sight before. The sort of stories I've tended to favor are those where love develops out of companionship slowly. These seemed more plausible than a sudden and deep attraction. Granted, it may not have been love at first sight, but by the fifth or so, I was realizing something was there. A deeper and wider awareness. A differing perception, where he was more solid and real than others around. Afterward, I couldn't stop thinking of him. I've avoided romance for a long time, given general shyness, past experiences and a general desire not to lose my identity into a coupleship. But this was different. I never really felt shy around him. I felt like I could be me. Developing out of companionship is happening as well. Talking, teasing, common ground, and all that. We've even had the same thought at the same time. He's kind, interesting, funny, talented, and clever. We can talk for hours. He is so caring and considerate. *sap*
I'm in love, and it is wonderful! I don't know where this will go, but it is far more than a crush. And the love at first sight thing? Seems a lot more possible now.

1:55pm: As dawn breaks...*crash*
Ok, so not dawn, but I managed to get out a few minutes before 7(only an hour after sunrise) on my early morning bike adventure, heading down to the bottom of the hill. Even here, at that hour of the morning, it felt cool. Heavy dew, but the roads were dry. The first leg of the route is a 1.5 mi bikepath following a creek. There are a number of pipe maintence tower thingys, each painted with a different type of leaf. A number of rabbits were out and about. It's odd coming out the other end, as the woods along the trail are thick enough that you mostly don't see civilization, and then *zoom* out into the community center parking lot. This is a suburbs area. Series of neighborhood and apartment complexes on one side of the street, a string of strip malls on the other. Then onto another little bit of bikepath that takes me though to quiet neighborhood streets, and then onto another big street. This is an area of New Suburbs. Big pastel houses, careful landscaping, streets and sub-divisions with silly names. Ick. Also a hill that is not steep, but rather gradual and looooooong. Then a zig and zag that leaves me going the same direction but on a very different street. Quieter and narrower, there are some older houses, a few New Sub-divisions, a few businesses. These get more and more interspersed with fields and houses with barns until it's hay in big rolls in the fields, or cows in the fields. It's an odd combination of feeling like I'm leaving civilization and that I'm going back in time. Then I reach an intersection. A faded sign proclaims this intersection as Calavander. A population center, faded to nothing? A municipality, still-born? No way to tell. Ahead the road goes on, fields on one side, woods on the other. To the right, the same, where the road is the Hillsborough Rd because it goes to Hillsborough.

I'll take one of those one of these times, straight on Dairyland Rd, which in 4-5 miles reaches a local dairy and ice cream producer. Or right, which I know little about. But this time, like the last, it's left past some fields and houses, back toward the present and the future. Or at least to the Farmer's market, with corn-on-the-cob and local goat's cheese and the end of the swiss chard.

All in all, not a bad morning.

5:09pm: Lookit me!!
I have not yet figured out why LJ seems to be more challenging for me than most software, or at least more scary. It isn't hard, and I think I'm finally figuring it out. I think I've friended those of you who have friended me, and I think I've changed the background, but let's see what happens.

A quiet afternoon, in a city that knows how to keep it's.....wait, this isn't Prairie Home Companion, which I still haven't seen the movie of. Maybe this weekend, which will likely be somewhat boring. A lack of car prevents a weekend trip to the beach or mountains. However there is always biking, cooking, and D&D. Yes, I'm a geek.

I haven't updated in a while, so things that have happened since then:
*discovered the job I thought I had for the summer evaporated under me.
*did job-hunting, had an interview, but didn't get the job
*Went to the Gerald, had a lovely time as discussed about on the board
*Fell in love
*The prof for whom I was doing the evil(*killsmashrend*) serials stuff found funding for me to contintue to work on it over the summer. Definitely a mixed blessing.
*started my summer classes, cataloging and management, which will probably get discussion later.

My goal is to update at least once a week from now on. Let's see how that goes.

To give me more practice with this, I'm also starting the questions meme. Ask away!!

11:28pm: I think Dante missed a level...
Because I'm surely in hell. I'm trying to generate lists of academic journal titles based on faculty CVs without including book chapters, conference proceedings and other random crap. Of which there is a lot in the CS set. Which is large and confusing. And I have to redo chemistry because it got all fucked up.
Before 3pm tomorrow. And finish polisci.

*whimper*

8:02pm: Library School is wierd
Library school, due to the nature of the profession, differs from other graduate studies. It is almost more like nursing, pharmacy or law than more thematically related topics like computer science or cultural studies. There is theory, and extensive research, but also projects that are less experiment and more product development, and a large amount of education that is very vocational. We write a master's paper of significant length and research, but ultimately are preparing for a job that requires the set of skills, knowledge and methods that make up a Masters of Library Science. While there are PhDs, there are fewer than in some disciplines. Only those who want to teach at a library school get a PhD, and there aren't that many spots.

This came up in my human-information interaction class today, we read one of the articles that harshly criticize the level of service at a reference desk. It is an awkward sort of self reflection. If this were a truly academic discipline, there wouldn't be anything to criticize. Were it a truly vocational discipline, there wouldn't be this level of negativity about the future profession. Since it is both and neither, the challenge remains: how to improve the profession without losing our faith in it, or causing others to threaten our future.

8:26pm: House dynamics and house tension
It is tricky, living in a house with 12 other people. People sleep at different times, all seem to need to use the shower at the same time, and have various tolerances for dirt and mess. We're getting these worked out bit by bit. The trick, however, is the thing that makes Crafts House more than just a bunch of people living together-food and cooking. In this arena, 13 sets of food preferences, mess tolerances, budgets, schedules and philosophical beliefs come crashing together. This has become obvious over the last couple of weeks, but was fully illustrated at our last house meeting. Of the 13 people in the house, 5 are vegetarians, 1 does not eat any processed food, 2 have large meal plans in addition to the house budget and 1 is allergic to onions. Traditionally we are a vegetarian co-op with a emphasis on cooking vegan as well. Three people are unhappy with our eating, we discovered last night, and this is rather irritating. The whole foods girl wanted a discount on the food plan because she isn't really eating our food. The two with meal plans are not used to eating veggie, and want to buy and cook more meat. This would be fine if they were doing so with their own money, but they want to change the shop list. These two are also intensely germ-phobic, and are pushing for a dishwasher. They also have been complaining about the time commitment to the house for cooking, shopping, and shifts in the center. In short these two are a problem.

My question is: What were they expecting? These obligations were made clear when they applied. I'm sorry that they are busy, but so are everybody else. That isn't my problem. The result of this discussion was a three hour house meeting that still didn't cover everything we needed to do.

*grumble*
ok, rant over

12:28am: A good day, if a non-productive one
I meant to post before this, I really did. Then life interfered and for a while, the posts would have been depressing, and I couldn't see restarting posting like that. But today was nice. The storms we had yesterday passed and the morning dawned(or continued, as I wasn't awake at sunrise) fresh and clear. Having no classes on Friday means that I can get up and do stuff. So I went biking. There is a bike path nearby, which stretches across several towns. It travels a former rail line, and moves through both residential areas and woods. Sumac grew along the trail at various intervals. It is still mostly green, but some plants had just a few of the blazing red leaves that herald the end of the summer.
I'm getting used to the house I am living in this semester. It is simultaneously a vegetarian co-op and the staff of the crafts center on campus. We take turn cooking meals, so everyone eats together in the evenings and cooks once a week. I will cook for the first time on Sunday, and I'm a little nervous. There is an odd sort of attitude here, one that I find both liberating and scary. There is very little here that is considered bad to change. With nearly everything there is the opportunity to decorate it, change or use it. Both craft materials and possessions lose their mantle of inviolitability(is that a word), and become available to the manipulations of idea and creativity. I find myself affected in this way as well. While biking, I was bothered by my backpack, which is a cheap little thing handed out by the university as they distributed keys. When previously I would have ignored it, or stopped using the bag, my first though now was, "How can I change the straps on this to make it more comfortable." The fact that my alterations would forever affect my use of the bag, and could concievably cause the destruction of said bag seemed less important in the face of plan and design. I think this is good, if a little scary.

8:04pm: So much for procrastination
Well, it didn't take as long as the last new addiction did. Genarti pushed for several months before I Brunchified. Or should that be Brunchilated? Though she has been hinting "LJ is fun" for a while now. Oh well. Today should have been a "get work done" day. While I was not totally unproductive, I'm not sure I would qualify it as such. But I did get some work done on my research paper. Now, dinner and anime.