I've had an absolutely crazy two weeks. Between Thanksgiving, school, work, NaNoWriMo, and being a newlywed, spending time on the computer not doing schoolwork or NaNo writing just hasn't been much of an option.

Anyway, I apologize profusely for neglecting my three readers and promise to try and be better in the future. I will update much soon about my Thanksgiving trials and travails. For now, a moment of pop culture.

It seems like all the friends I have made since starting library school have been big Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans. Since I love Firefly, I already was a Joss Whedon fan (Joss Whedon is the creator of both series), so when one of the friends said she had it available to be borrowed, I jumped at the chance.

Giles is the librarian. While I don’t dislike computers – I actually am rather fond of him – this exchange made me fall madly in love with him.

Ms Calendar: Honestly, what is it about [computers] that bothers you so much?
Giles: The smell.
Ms Calendar: Computers don't smell, Rupert.
Giles: I know. Smell is the most powerful trigger to the memory there is. A certain flower or a whiff of smoke can bring up experiences long forgotten. Books smell. Musty and, and, and, and rich. The knowledge gained from a computer, is, it ... it has no texture, no context. It's there and then it's gone. If it's to last, then the getting of knowledge should be tangible, it should be, um... smelly.

::sigh:: beautiful.

In other news, I asked my husband if I could have money to buy a slinky dress. He told me I could. When I told him what the dress was and how much the starting bid is, he kinda backed off.

They’re auctioning off some of the original costumes from firefly. That includes the ball gown Inara wore in Shindig. Bidding starts at $2,500 This dress is beautiful. If it had been available when I was getting married I would have secretly wished for it as a wedding dress. You can see how beautiful the bodice of this dress is here and you can see how beautiful the back is here and you can see more of the pretty skirt here.here. I'm sorry that I couldn't find a better full shot of the whole dress, but it is beautiful, yes? Yes. Anyone want to buy it for me?

Anyway - lots of Thanksgiving madness posts to come.

excretion geometry

One of the new trends in modern encyclopedias is the key words. It used to be that you'd look at an encyclopedia and the spine would say something like bis-cen. Nowadays it will say something like impressionism - juggling. Not a big deal, but it can (on occasion) lead to hilarity.
Encyclopedia Britannica is currently following this trend – using key words as opposed to key groups of letters. Their Macropædia (knowledge in depth) has a volume about Excretion Geometry.
They put one word on one line and the second word on the next instead of using a dash. That’s totally fine with me, but don’t be surprised if I turn into a middle schooler and giggle like I think poop jokes are funny.

Metrospiritual

Apparently I am a metrospiritual. For those not in the mood to click that link, let me explain what it says, and why this very much bothers me.

Do you go out of your way to buy organic food? Have you thought about the wu wei in your home? Have you tried yoga, belly-dancing, or surfing recently? Are you attracted to traditional crafts from other cultures or have you started knitting? Do you own a Prius or have you thought about buying a hybrid car? Are you a tea connoisseur or an organic wine- and beer-drinker? Is there a certain aromatherapy scent that brings you comfort, especially in candle form?

Well, I buy organic food often, I do yoga and really want to try belly-dancing and surfing, I crochet (and like to think of myself as a crafty sort of person), I plan on owning a hybrid car as soon as I can afford one, I am definitely a tea connoisseur (totally obsessed), and I have far to many candles for my own good.

You can ask the pink shoe, who has known me longer than I've known me. That's basically who I have been forever. Most of the people I know who are also what would be qualified as metrospirituals have also been this way for ages. I guess it just makes me sad that this article (and a few others that I have found) make it seem like it is impossible for someone to be motivated by wanting the world to be a better place, not by what the latest trends are. I’m really pleased that it is apparently popular nowadays to care if your clothes were made in a sweatshop, or to notice news that comes from over 100 miles away (news that comes from across the ocean!), or for people to worry about the environment and try to fix it.

Maybe I’m just naïve. Maybe most people are “metrospirituals” because it is the cool thing to do … but I’d like to think that most people who act this way don’t do it because it is cool, or because it gets them the babes/boys/friends/whatever. I, personally, would much rather not think that way, though. I’d like to think that more Americans are finally opening their eyes and seeing a world beyond our borders and realizing that whether we like it or not, we are a part of this global life.

Ok, yeah – so I am just naïve. I’m ok with that ... I'll just continue to hope I am right.

random important things

Two things that I am a day late for
HAPPY BIRTHDAY Neil Gaiman! I love him.

I definitely have an intellectual crush on Neil Gaiman. I know. That’s pathetic. But it isn’t a real crush – not in a romantic way at all. It is more the sort of crush where I just want to sit and talk with him for hours on end.

He’s brilliant. If you are a comic/graphic novel fan, you should go find the Sandman series. If you are a mythology fan, go read his book American Gods. Anansi Boys came out recently – and I haven’t read it, so I can’t recommend it personally, but it was just declared one of the 10 best books of 2005 by Publishers Weekly.

I found out about this today. I love writing tiny stories (or drabbles, as many of us in the know call them). I could have submitted a couple! I always find it to be a fun way to get something out there.

But of course, I find out about it the day after the extended deadline. Ah well. I survive.

Back to NaNoWriMo

Practicing Safe Cataloging.

Library school is making me dorkier and dorkier. Last night I fell head over heels in love with the Dewey Decimal system.

Let me explain, and let me see if I can not talk you into being in love with it as well. You might want to skip this entry if dorkiness and a slight bit of technicality are not your thing.

Numbers have meaning in the Dewey Decimal System. Take, for example, Mesa County. The Dewey Decimal Number for Mesa County is 78817. It willl always be 78817. The number for College Basketball is 796.32363. If you were cataloging a book about college basketball in Mesa County, You would take the number for college basketball and add on the number for Mesa County. Therefore you end up with 796.3236378817

Super fun, yes?

Lets go on. Sticking with the Mesa County theme, because you all have already memorized that number (right?), lets say you are cataloging a directory of engineers in Mesa County. Engineers are found in the Dewey Decimal System under 620. A directory adds 025 on. Mesa County is 78817.

Here we get to a slightly tricky part. When you are taking two things that are different and mushing them together into one thing (eg. Engineers and Directories - definately different), you add a 0. Therefore, we end up with 620.002578817.

SO COOL, yes?

I'm enjoying this so much.

I could go on, but I have a feeling y'all don't want me too.

Happy Dancing in the Streets!

Has everyone else read this? It is a good day when you wake up to something that fabulous.

Right now I have nothing more to say than what she has already said, but - YAY! I'm off to write because the mood I'm in is terribly condusive.

I did really well on NaNoWriMo yesterday. 2018 by midnight! I was psyched - that's 18 over my goal, so that's 18 less for me to write on some random hard day. I didn't realize that today would be the hard day.

I ended up going to bed pretty late. My mother-in-law had given me this recipe for pumpkin seeds that is fabulous, but that involves roasting them for two and a half hours. I had misread the recipe and thought it said half an hour, so I timed them to be done just after dinner ...

but had to stay up until 1 to get them out of the oven

then had to stay up to try them out

then had to stay up just because I was still up

I finally went to bed at around 3ish, I think.

So I didn't do any writing before work today at 9- then I worked for 7 hours - until 4 - now I'm home for half a second to grab some stuff and off to school for a pre class study session, then class until 9 (but hopefully I can write during class).

Then I'll be home at 9 in time to make dinner before my husband comes home from work (we're on a crazy eating schedule over here) ...

and then to bed.

Hopefully somewhere in there I can write 1982 words. That's the year I was born, so it shouldn't be too hard, eh?

edit: I came back from class, and for some reason this had never posted. I'm posting it at 9:29 at night - but it will say 4:17 because that is when it was actually typed.