Briefly

A brief update on the final days of my vacation:

• sewed a shirt out of a Star Wars sheet
• embellished a shirt to match the librarian skirt (which I'll wear for my first day of work tomorrow!)
• went shooting with Alex and Joel yesterday
• re-upholstered 1 of 4 chairs thus far
• Alex and his dad got three walls up for our building's bathroom
• it's really, really humid
• I didn't get Kristen's message that she had seen the final Lost until yesterday, so I couldn't post anything about it, like:
• Eeek! Will Michael & Walt be back? Is Faux Henry "Him?" Etc... The irony is that...
• we finally broke down and got satellite...
• a week after the final episode, which I should have DVR-ed because we need to see it again. And again.

Sssh! Skirt

Well, my hair's too short to put in a bun, but maybe my cateye glasses and this skirt will let people know my true profession:





Materials:

• 1 plaid wool skirt with lining
• 4 colors felt
• contrasting thread
• black lace trim
• silver chain (charm bracelet on clearance)

First, I had to hem the skirt and lining, then add lace to the lining, before I could even begin the felt applique. This took a ridiculous amount of time, although not as much as I feared. I'm pretty happy with the result.

I'm terrified to log into Bloglines. I've not opened my account in seven days. That's a lot of posts to sift through...

Batgirl Wears a Skirt

Here's part of what I've been doing in my time off...





Materials:

• 1 knit skirt
• 4 colors of felt
• contrasting thread
• 3 buttons
• metal letters (they string on ribbon)
• black ribbon
• "Batman" cotton fabric
• a lot of patience

Celebrate Good Times, C'mon!

Okay, so this is good news and all, as long as it doesn't turn out to kill/maim/otherwise harm us gals thirty years from now...

But THIS is the really great news!!! 2007--Celebration IV--Los Angeles--Bryce and Amy and Trey and Kelsey and Matt (and also possibly visiting my non-geeky relatives in CA)! My native homeland (yep, I'm one of those I-wasn't-born-here-but-got-here-as-fast-as-I-could Texans).

And while I'm geeking out--can I just say that MySpace totally rocks as X-Space, and I wish they weren't just doing this as a temporary promotion?

And another winning time-killer: Librarian Dress-Up.

Sew What?

Wow, I don't think I've been off Blogger this long since April '05... and I haven't been away from a computer this long in at least two--(three... four?)--years.

It's kinda relaxing.

So, you ask, what have I been frittering my vacation time away on, since I'm obviously not tackling any web development at the moment? Let's see, shall we?

Monday: yardwork (yes, all day long--our yard is that big. and was that weedy.)
Tuesday: housework.
Wednesday: pleasure reading--gasp!--and sewing (will post photos of this silliness later).
Thursday: pleasure reading--double gasp!--and sewing (the creative urge is too strong to resist).
Today: catching up on email and blogging, heh heh, finishing sewing, etc etc etc, then hopefully watching X-men 3 tonight.

I fully intended to get things done that needed doing Monday and Tuesday, then using the rest of the week, and possibly through next Wednesday, to get the new Snazzy Decor up and running. But yardwork on Monday--probably the part where I moved three bags of hardened 80-lb. concrete by my-own-little-self--caused some back strain of a rather painful sort, which I exascerbated by my indoor work on Tuesday. And since my usual 8-12 hours a day on the computer tend to strain my back/neck on a normal day, I didn't really want to risk it.

And it's so... peaceful... without my cell phone ringing and having twelve tabs open in Firefox, checking my five (main) email accounts. Ahhhh.

So, yeah. The web development still needs to be done. Perhaps I can get on that next week. But in the meantime, I give you pure delight, in the form of KitchenAid shades of beauty.

The Obese Female Has Caroled

It's my last day at the desk, and I just finished my last hour. It's hard to believe that it's over.

I'm still at the desk, actually, archiving my network drive information before lunch. (Ugh.) Then I've got some paperwork to fill out for the new position, something the print, and I'm on my merry way home to spend my week and a half off. There's really nothing else to say, except that I am grateful for this position, those I have worked with and for, and the incredible learning experience--and fun experience--this has been.

Wann apply for my old job?

Unrelated Banter

• So... English isn't already our "national language" on paper? Huh. Then... why does it matter to name it so now?
• Ouch! Man, the Mavs will accept AJ from the Spurs, but they apparently don't like Finley turning the tables. Ah well, makes for an interesting series.

Goodbye, Rerun!

I know my buds Alex, Kristen, Amy, and Jaime will be pleased at this: no more Lost clip shows or reruns. They're having a hiatus--much like a lot of cable shows seem to be doing--and will run an unrelated new series during that time. But at least now we'll have two blocks of shows a season where our adrenaline-charged momentum won't be interrupted.

Ninjas (and Dogs) Hate Pirates

So... they're training dogs to sniff out DVDs in packages in an effort to fight piracy (listen to the story here).

This is a little to easy both to question and to make fun of. Let me say that in the story this morning on NPR, the UK spokesman actually did confirm that the dogs can't tell the difference between pirated and legitimate DVDs. So apparently our friends across the pond still subscribe to the theory that their American counterparts are a bit dim.

The MPAA claims that in 2004, the entertainment industry lost $3.5 billion to piracy. Okay...

1. The article concentrates on efforts to stop online distribution of stolen movies... but this number doesn't include online file-sharing.
2. How can they actually calculate a loss to piracy? Statistics and predicted outcomes: fancy words for "making up stuff to support my own ideas."
3. How do they know these people would have bought the movie if it hadn't been available online? (Back to the Napster hoopla: I know some people who have bought CDs they wouldn't have otherwise, because they've been able to listen to the whole thing freely online.)
4. The MPAA director states that people need to learn that piracy is "harmful to the people who use their talents to create movies." I'm sure his stern words have caused many pirates to think insightfully about how they're harming that set carpenter on the movie ads.
5. Alex and I always groove to the funky music at the beginning of Blockbuster DVDs, before realizing that it's the anti-piracy ad. They're only succeeding in showing that pirates have great music--probably because they stole it all online.
6. All this being said, YES, piracy = bad; please don't infringe on any person/group/industry's talent/way-of-making-a-living/copyright. Delete that copy of "Superman Returns" right now! Heck, it's badly pixelated anyway--don't you deserve the theater/movie-rental/home-theater experience?
7. Oh, my apologies to the MPAA for not stressing the theater experience exclusively. Maybe if theater ticket costs didn't make gas prices look decent...
8. Shiver me timbers, but ye be givin' pirates a bad name!
9. Ninjas may hate pirates, but they make interesting roommates.

My Lucky Numbers are 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42

Blogthings is too fun for my own good. Or for the quality of my posts.

Your Fortune Is

Man who sneezes without hanky takes matters into his own hands.

The Wacky Fortune Cookie Generator

And yes, I know we all knew this already:

You Are Gonzo the Great

"This evening, I will perform a feat of lunatic daring." You're a total nutball who will do anything for attention. The first to take a dare, you'll pull almost any stunt. You're one weird looking creature, but your chickens don't mind!

The Muppet Personality Test

Nice to Know

So, the Magic 8 Ball replied to my question, if the Spurs will win this series, with "You may rely on it."

The best part of this website? The part of the disclaimer that reads, "Use of this oracle is strictly forbidden to fans of the New York Yankees." (Hee, hee.)

Yesss!

Way to go, Spurs!

Assorted Mish-Mash

...So looking back on it, I didn't even have to march to Washington (see comments under the photo). Huh.

Pictures for my Gmail account! How much sweeter can they make this gig?

C,mon, Spurs. You can do it.
You've done the impossible before. I remember.

A question mark, a doctor with two names, a lying father, and a sham psychic walk into a hatch... I'm perusing Lost message boards for the perverse pleasure of finding occassional good theories and loads of ridiculous ones, bad spelling, and angry replies. Can't wait for tonight's episode, even though that only brings us closer to the season-ender's inevitably question-raisingly unsatisfying cliff-hanger.

Sigh. Why do I torture myself this way?

Note to self: some open-source image galleries...

• A List
• Another List
• Pyxy
• ZenPhoto
• Gallery2

Appropriate Glee

I think it's funny that because I read my news on Yahoo, I occassionally have titles on my Firefox bar that read like this one:

"Texas could accelerate to 80 mph - Yahoo!"

Zombies, Aliens, and Consoles, Oh My!

Just because I know you've always dreamed of knitting zombies, here's a Flickr slideshow of Dawn of the Dead--in tiny, gory knitted dolls. Here's my favorite one, Flyboy, and his non-knitted-inspiration.

Just in case you were stressing over the whole Han/Greedo/who-shot-first thing, here are some bookends that solve the issue by blocking their view. Greedo's saved by the books!

Check out these charts of popular game console prices from 1976 to the prices for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 (add the projected $200 for the Nintendo Wii yourself). Yeah, the author's got a point that the PS3's $500-600 price tag isn't the most expensive... but then again, how many of the over-$400 (adjusted) consoles became household names? The most popular systems have consistently been $200-300 (absolute), with more of them close to $200 than not.

Along with reports like this and this, Sony doesn't look to be in a good place right now.

I must gleefully add, regarding the Wii: old games! nostalgia! lightsabers!!!

Random Reference Book of the Day

What a fun find!

Pseudonyms and Nicknames Dictionary:
A guide to 80,000 aliases, appellations, assumed names, code names, cognomens, cover names, epithets, initilaisms, nicknames, noms de guerre, noms de plume, pen names, pseudonyms, sobriquets, and stage names of 55,000 contemporary and historical persons, including the subjects' real names, basic biographical information, and citations for the sources from which the entries were compiled.

Someday, I want to write a book that has a subtitle this cool.

Summer is for Faeries

Okay, Kristen's post about fairy doors reminded me of this spectacularly cool fairy garden store I found about three years ago. Which makes me think all kinds of faerie-related thoughts; about Brian Froud and Alan Lee's beautiful work Faeries, about how my beyond-cool Aunt Carol sent me several metal garden faeries last year to live in my flowerbed, how my mom and I repainted one of her garden faerie statues (she's now a blonde wearing blue, instead of a green-clad brunette), the cheeky "Bag End" and "No Goblins or Trolls" faerie doors at the Fat Fairy Bazaar, how I'm still mad at myself for not buying the "Fairies Live at the Bottom of this Garden" plaque at HomeDepot Expo, and how I'm sure that faeries of all kinds are avoiding my out-of-control landscape at the moment.

Who wouldn't want a tiny statuette of a nose-picking gargoyle?

Plus, it makes me think of many creative, writer-y and painter-y thoughts... maybe during that week+ off I should take some creative time that's not web-design-related to satiate my seasonal faerie fever.

The Weeds Are Always Deader On the Other Side

Today I grimly dressed in protective gear and ventured outside to face the jungle that's determinedly ambushed my house where my lawn used to be. This is Stage 1 of 3: I used season-long pest killer* (primarily for those pesky fire ants I'm allergic to, and in whose antpile I stepped this morning) around our foundation and three particularly large antpiles in the yard. Then I sprayed the pesky grass in my flowerbeds with garden-grass killer that won't harm the plants (except around the mint, which we like to eat). Then I used weed & grass killer on the sidewalk, driveway, and back patio to eliminate all the treacherous greenery creeping into the concrete cracks, and also on the large sandpile behind our garage (long story). I finished off with some weed n' feed for the back lawn areas that are particularly weedy. Er, meaning all of the back lawn.

*Yes, you're absolutely right, organic gardening is the greatest ever, and I'm killing the environment and ruining my health simply because I'm too busy to develop better gardening habits. Sad, isn't it?


This photo shows the type of thing I'm valiantly trying to avoid. Stage 2 is, well, a general mowing, edging, and hand-weeding areas that can't be otherwise helped. This probably won't happen for a few days while I wait for the weedkiller to do its work, and then I can trash all the dead stuff easily--which is part of Stage 3, which also includes getting rid of our old, non-working grill and moving the wood/metal flotsam of past projects and this building out to the building itself, instead of near the back patio. This will be the most gruelling part of the work, but the most aesthetically rewarding. And if I do it now, there will be less the prepare for by July 4th, by which time I'll be too busy being important at Willis to mess with it (wink, wink).

Segue into next topic by means of...


...a photo of ridiculously huge dandelion I found at UNT; yes, as big as my hand. Yikes.

So. I'm going nuts not uploading all my new photos onto Flickr and giving them names I delusionally believe are clever, and unwisely providing much blackmail material for friends, family, acquaintances, and mortal enemies. As evidence, I am placing a ridiculous number of photos in this post.

...Including a photo of the goodies from my isn't-it-great-you-have-a-real-job-at-UNT-but-wish-you-weren't-leaving-us party at CDL this afternoon. Dr. Harris arranged for this awesome cupcake butterfly, as she said, in honor of my free spirit. And full of sugary goodness; yum!


I had a fun time alternately chatting and being teased by the CDL crew--we were only missing Patrick and my woman T. That group is certainly my kinda crew; humorous, creative, and most of them distinctly on either the geekish or nerdy side. I mean that in a purely complimentary sense. :)

And for my own pleasure, here's my favorite pic of Alex and I on graduation day: on our way back with the top down. Oooooo, yeah.

How to Pass Time at the Gas Pump

(Well, when you've got a 25+ gallon tank to fill, it takes awhile.)

MLS-i-fied!

There's no real way to begin or to tell all, so I'll give you the essentials.

Saturday, I joined Nathan, Karen, Ann, and many other SLIS-ers garbed in black robes and funny hats. It was great--a much more intimate setting than my MA ceremony, which was a) at the Coliseum, and b) shared with the 600 MBA candidates. This was at Murchison Performing Arts Center, in a room smaller than (but slightly reminiscent of) HSU's Behrens Chapel. We grads waited backstage, chatting and giggling and trying to figure out how to fold and hold the darned hoods. Then we filed in, trying to catch the eyes of friends and family.

We all had a laugh when Dr. Totten realized the mic wasn't working. Then we heard several speakers--one concerning duct tape and our future--and suddenly it's time to walk the stage. I felt compassion for the lone undergraduate who nervously had to walk alone; but then it was our turn. My "H" last name put me near to my three pals, which was nice.

Then it was all surreal and fuzzy as I walked onto the stage. Dr. Hastings hooded me, whispering, "We're proud of you, baby--go do great things!" Then I walked across the rest of the stage to get my diploma, suddenly acutely aware that my if my high heels had been tap shoes, they could not have been louder. Thereafter, I tried to walk on the balls of my feet. As I passed Dr. Turner, he surreptitously gave a little wave. I took the diploma from Dr. Totten and smiled dazedly into the camera, walked off to smile dazedly again for the portrait in front of the flags, then walked back to my seat (it was the wrong one, I discovered later), and grinned back at my family like a loon.

We walked out to clapping and cheering family and friends--yep, I heard you, Edward--and then tried to find them all amidst the throng in Murchison's hall. I got hugs and grins from Dr. Turner, Karen, Amanda, and Nathan as we excitedly gabbed and introduced various family members. I finally found my people, gave my hubby a huge squeeze, and then we all took off for dinner at Tia's.

Alex and I took a little longer, so that he could take some photos of me, including the goofy one you see above. At Tia's, we tried to talk amidst the unbelieveable noise, and enjoyed great food--I splurged and ordered extra guacamole, even though my chicken was already garnished with avacados--heavenly.

At home, Mom and Dad brought cookies n' cream and we enjoyed bowls of it while chatting some more and trying to let the events of the day sink in.

Sunday, we had a Mother's Day picnic out at McKinney Trade Days with both of our moms, and found some crazy flea-market items.

I've edited all the grad photos, but won't put them up on Flickr until I've backed up what I currently have up there--hopefully in the next few days, I'll get them up. (Hoping to upload a big image gallery program in the coming weeks, and provide the most recent highlights in my Flickr rotation.)

So now I'm all MLS-i-fied and feel so happy and proud that it must be emblazoned across my chest in bright red letters.

Reality Check

You know what I just realized? I graduate tomorrow.

Wow.

Nerd Peer Pressure

So, after reading about LibraryThing yet again last night, and my pal Cameron emailing me about it this morning... all right fine, I give in.

I don't have a lot in there yet, just starting with the basics: Lewis, Tolkein, L'Engle, McKinley.

Give Me a Hand, Willya?

So, particularly in light of the NSA phone records, I'm thinking about personal security. On the radio this morning, the DJs were discussing thumbscans. UNT is already using this system. Admittedly, this is more convenient than a signature, and a bit more difficult to forge (I'm assuming it isn't fooled by making "copies" of someone's thumbprint with a bit of dried glue or glove, a' la Charlie's Angels). But personally, I just can't shake the thought that if my money's going to be stolen, I'd rather my wallet was taken than my thumb.

Um, hello, remember Minority Report? What about Demolition Man? And yes, I did just make a serious reference to one of the most deliciously self-consciously goofy sci-fi movies ever made.

Still. They've got a point.

More Unrelated Banter:

• In the "What?" category: Thai radio station for dogs.
• In the "Dingy Heiress" category: Paris Hilton flubbed the name of her own video game. Sigh.

What I Read

I must say, Sandra Tayler is extremely wise, creative, honest, and fun. I came to read her blog in an odd, round-about association:

1) I read the webcomic "Joe Loves Crappy Movies"
2) I was searching for more information its creator, Joe Dunn
3) I found a blog post about the "Coolest Dudes" in webcomics
4) That mentioned that the author reads the blog of Howard Taylor, author of Schlock Mercenary
5) And even more avidly reads his wife's blog
6) I checked it out, and I'm hooked.

She writes about being a stay-at-home mom with four kids, and how they try to live frugally as a family so that Howard can continue to work fulltime on his webcomic. But it's less about the webcomic and more about her joys, struggles, and great ideas as a parent. I also like it because she was a gamer chick, so I feel more connected and less like I'm reading a "mommy" blog. Some of her more recent neat thoughts:

• chore incentive chart
• bargain-hunting
• fairy houses
• Mario anecdote

Unrelated Banter:

• Everyone needs a two-headed unicorn skirt.
• See, I told you that RFID in libraries was a bad idea.

Notice: This Library is Not a Drive-Thru

Finals week tends to take its toll on Willis. But this is getting ridiculous.

Security informed me that twice they've had to tell students that no, you can't order a pizza and bring it into the library. Domino's does not deliver to this address.

Bag of Whataburger trash on a shelf in the abstracts & indexes section. Does that bag have a call number? No? Then it doesn't go on that shelf.

Remains of a Chick-Fil-A sandwhich beside a computer in the reference section. Greasy fingers on a publicly-used keyboard--that thought doesn't make your stomach churn, does it?

Oh, and our wastebasket? It's not a spitoon. Really.

CyberMortician

That's the job title Nathan thinks I should have, since I'll be dealing with the CyberCemetery.

I kinda like that.

Deep Breaths

Sometimes customer service is difficult.
I think I still managed to do my job well, and to stay calm.

And that's all I have to say about that.

In the "Oops" Category

Isn't it Ionic? Air Purifies Make Smog.

Go Spurs Go!

Spurs take on the Mavs in San Anton' again tonight at 8:30.

Bring it.

Update: Arg!

Cinderella Is Jealous

Cars of a Feather...

...park together!

Yeah, so Mini Coopers and VW Beetles aren't the same species, but they're both super-cute, super-tiny cars that were recently redesigned to hark back to their golden years.

Warhol's Hat Trick

Fiddling around with Photoshop... clockwise, starting at upper left: halftone filter, gaussian blur, cutout, and the original photo (for which I used the "dodge" blender in layers).



I think I like the gaussian blur version best. It certainly shows how our cellular blinds make good light diffusers for portraiture.

Hat Trick

More Flickr madness.

Chihuly: If you don't know him, get to know him.

Thank you Kristen, for being an awesome friend, coworker, and gift-bestow-er.

The Birdie Says "Cheap!"

Sam Moon Trading Co. is the Ikea of women's accessories.

More Notes to Self

• Use life-savings to buy gas at Fuel Bank.
• Never label anything "unsinkable."
• Check out the flash series Gotham Girls.
• While reading Crisis on Infinite Earths, check out Annotated Crisis and Guide to Crisis.
• Don't let on that I'm such a geek.

(Too late.)

Testing My Wings

It's a satisfying thing, to realize that all my years of education and various jobs are resolving into this position. It's almost incomprehensible to me to imagine not being in school--I can barely remember a time before kindergarten, when I didn't live my life by nine-month periods--but it's also blissfully exciting. I feel the kind of heart-stopping excitement you feel at the top of that particularly tall first peak on a roller-coaster--you know you're going to start plunging down in a moment, and you know you're not going to be hurt, but you also don't exactly know what to expect, so you can feel a tight sharpness in the back of your throat.

It may be an odd thing, but symbolically, I feel that I've accepted my coming to the End-of-Preparation-and-Beginning-of-Real-Life stage by finally reading an Anne McCaffrey novel.

Being an avid fantasy/sci-fi fan, of course I've known about her Pern novels for ages--since middle school--but I'd only ever read a volume of her short stories until this past week. By the time I wanted to read her, I was a senior in high school and going through both Robert Jordan and David Eddings, very prolific writers who left me little time to dally with others. Then there was college, and I'd kept myself from reading almost any non-limited (longer than trilogy) series, save RJ who's of course bound me until the Wheel stops turning (speaking of which, I didn't know about his health). So I always told myself, as soon as school was done for good, I'd take up McCaffrey.

It's been eleven years in college, and this past week I both finished Dragonsdawn (chronologically the first Pern novel), and read most of another Pern short story book, A Gift of Dragons. It was good timing--I happened to find Dragonsdawn for 25 cents at the Feral Cat Rescue Group book sale a few weeks ago. (And appropriate--this was the first book cover of the series that I remember seeing, being enchanted by the tiny dragonets on the cover.)

I suppose it's fitting for a reader and a librarian to mark the end of her illustrious education by starting a new series. Anyway, any other readers who have already discovered Pern, I'm honored to finally join your ranks.

...Now, who can lend me a copy of Dragonflight? UNT doesn't appear to have it.

Cultured Like Yogurt

Whew! I had to set our alarm for both Saturday and Sunday, which is a little unusual, but on the positive side, I think that last night was my first full night of sleep since last Sunday. Everytime I'm tired and I lay down, my brain tends to shriek, "Librarian! Staff! Fulltime! Own office!" and then it gibbers off into unintelligible gleeful noises.

Friday I tried out the Springfield XD sub-compact 9mm at Bullettrap and was surprised at how easy it is to shoot. It's a squatty, solid little gun that looks thick, but fits into my shrimpy hand surprisingly well. It also doesn't kick hard, but I did have trouble keeping my right arm stationary, and kept hitting the target high. Oddly enough, as we were entering the range with Keith, we ran into Kali--almost literally!--and then Joel. It's always nice to see friends when you weren't expecting to! Alex went ahead and joined so that he can go after work whenever the group wants to go, but I declined, since I really don't know how my daily schedule is going to work.

Yesterday we went to seen the Mayan exhibit at the DMA with Josh & Keith--entailing another unexpected encounter when I ran into Josh Rose, who I'd been a Teaching Assistant with--and also made an impromptu visit to the Nasher Sculpture Center. Then, just for the stark contrast of it all, we went to the Big Town gun show and met four more work pals there.


Today, we're at QuickOffice so that Alex can finish up some work; we've been playing foosball while we waited--I stink, but not so badly as I would have thought--and I watched the Spurs beat the Mavs by 2 points! Plus, I just finished my LAST FINAL. The word "final" has never had such meaning, such--er--finality, before.

School's out for summer! School's out FOREVER!
(Well, you know, until I find an interesting class to take, or get my certificate in digital imaging or library management, or get talked into starting that Info Science Doctorate....)

Hades Freezes Over

Lucas is releasing the original trilogy on DVD, in all its theatrical glory.

I'm sorry, I don't think you heard me. Original trilogy on DVD!

I never, never thought I would see the day. When Alex reported this to me last night, I got goosebumps over my entire body.

Finally:
1) Han shoots first.
2) Hayden isn't at the end of ROTJ.
3) The sarlaac won't have a ridiculous venus flytrap head.
4) "Yub nub," the joy of my youth!
5) I don't have to watch CG Jabba.

And just to show that Lucasfilm finally gets that they can--gasp--make money off of us traditionalists, they're releasing their own, licensed, "Han shot first" shirts (see the indie version as modeled by Alex). It makes me mad, but I want one. Drat that Lucasfilm.

My favorite quote from the Yahoo News article? "According to Lucasfilm, 'attractively priced' works out to $29.95 per package." No joke.

In related news, the spiffiest game yet is now even better: Lego Star Wars OT!!!!

And Here's Starr With the News

Hi, Big Brother!

If you haven't heard this story already, you probably don't want to know. (But just in case you wanted to hear about a 20-year-dead naked corpse pickled in a rum barrel, I'm linking it. )

Wow--and here I thought all that fictional futuristic weather control stuff was just that--futuristic and ficitonal. Meet George Jetson--or at least Doc Brown.

Tom Cruise, now look what you started.

Oh Microsoft, how you make me laugh. Let me count the ways.

1) You're getting on the search engine bandwagon about four years too late. Google isn't remotely scared. Probably because they've seen your earlier products.

2) So you're updating IE, eh? With tabs, eh? So, first you're copycat-ing Google, now you're copycat-ing Firefox? Any original ideas out there?

3) Oh, besides the graphic-intensive new OS you've reportedly designed. Like I want to have to buy a new graphics card for an OS, not a game.

4) Did I mention that Vista's delayed? ...Again? Or make that: again-again-again?

5) Proof that MS doesn't play well with others.

You Know What I Just Realized?

I'm UNT Staff. Staff, man.
(Well, I will be, come June 1.)

Note to self: Rec Center and Parking Permit

CameraCrazy

Flickr upload now complete. You are safe to disembark.

I like my tagcloud; it's so me-looking.

Flickr For the Peep-le

Flickr For the Peeple
Originally uploaded by andrea z.

Genius, in marshmallow form.

Helping Out the Needy

Won't you have compassion and date Kevin?

Jumping Up And Down

Okay, I was going to blog about how the interview went yesterday, but that's old news--I GOT THE JOB! [In case this link has already been refreshed by the time you look at it, the job is Visiting Librarian I, Librarian for Digital Collections in the Government Documents Department of UNT's Willis Library.]

Ellen (my current supervisor) and I were jumping up and down and hugging in the Reference office, and everybody was happy and sweet and smiling. Me, I can't stop smiling or shaking. I think I might have impaired Alex's hearing when I called him--sorry, babe!

(I won't be able to stop using multiple exclamation points for awhile. Get used to it!!!)

My sweet sweet husband brought home Chopsticks for dinner last night, and we watched Lost--Michael!!!--and then Blow Dry, which was pretty funny and British and involved a lot of fun/interesting/completely bizarre hairdos.

So, the interview. Here's the experience, which is pretty typical of academic library interviews:

6-8 pm dinner with the department the night before

9 am tour of the department
9:30 meet with Search Committee (questions)
10:30 sweat while preparing for:
11:00 gave presentation on importance of permanent public access
11:30 finished, and had Q/A
11:45 off to lunch with Search Committee
1:30 met with PAC (Personnel Affairs Committee)
2:00 library tour (well, of the DigiLab, MMDL, LAN, and the server room--awesome!)
3:00 met with associate dean and dean's assistant
3:30 met again with Search Committee
4 pm --done!
5 pm--arrived home, took a NAP!

A big THANK YOU to all of you who supported me during my loooooong years in school, and my job search, through prayer, talks, hugs, food, shopping (I'm looking at YOU, Amy), commiseration, email, chat, thoughts, vibes, and interpretive dance. Dancers, you know who you are.

I'll be uploading lots of photos to Flickr later this afternoon, as well. Yeah, that's random. I don't particularly care. I'm just flat-out HAPPY.

Did I mention I get my own office?

:)

More Bang for Your (Star)Buck('s)

• A Never-Ending Loop
• The End of the Universe

...aaaand back to work.
(Usual wordy posts, housework, and normal life to resume on Thursday.)