I <3 Unshelved

I absolutely love this comic!

This really relates what being a librarian is all about. A large percentage of challenged books are picked out for grief by people who haven't even read them. Whether the person has read the book is one of the first questions asked on the questionnaire for the reconsideration of materials form at the library. We do not defend the content of the materials in our collection, but we do try to protect patrons' rights to have access to those materials. I have been thinking about this a lot since we are in the time of Banned Book Week and I introduced two Danger: Books! presentations.

(BTW, I love these showings! Get in to see one if you can!)--I know, I haven't said that before...

Three for the Price of One

It is interesting how similar the promo for Bionic Woman is to the cover of Scott Westerfeld's new book, Extras. Scott talks about it a bit here. In his series, this is called "surg" (short for surgery) and is cosmetic--mostly. Unless you are a Special. Then it may have some bionic type use. I am looking forward to reading Extras to find out what the significance of the eye surg on the cover has. It comes out October 2nd--although I have heard that some lucky folks have already received theirs.

I watched the Bionic Woman with the B-man last night. It was pretty good, although I hope it gets better. The special effects were fun and I love Katee Sackoff from BSG. She will only be in the first couple of episodes though. Michelle Ryan seems so soft though, so unlikely to be a hard, tough bionic woman. I suppose this is part of the plot and we will see her character become harder and more remote as the season wears on. No Painkiller Jane here (um, thank goodness...). The show is getting terrible reviews on IMDB. I don't think it was bad--I would watch it again--but I also can't really remember the original series very well.

I had my interview on Monday and it went well. From what I hear the competition on this one is stiff, so maybe I will get my wish and get a chance to interview for the job I hold now. I don't know what to hope for in that catagory. Just have to wait and see.

Cold Weather Fuzzies

As promised, a picture of my most recent crochetting attempts. These are a present for a friend's birthday this week.

Way Cooler than a Toyota

Wow, they have certainly learned a thing or two since the last time they spammed me. A real-looking email address (changed to protect the less intelligent) and a BMW as a prize.

NOTIFICATION


THE INTERNATIONAL AWARENESS
POMOTION DEPARTMENT
Avenida Primado Reig3,
Madrid,Spain.
Reference Number: BMW:2551412003/17

!!!CONGRATULATION YOU ARE A WINNER!!!.

The Board of Directors, members of staff and the International Awareness Promotion Department of the BMW Automobile Company, wishes to congratulate you on your success as the STAR PRIZE WINNER in this years' BMW Automobile International Awareness Promotion (IAP) held on the 1st of August, 2007, in Spain.

This makes you the proud owner of a brand new BMW 5 Series, M Sport Saloon car and a prize of Nine Hundred and Fifty Thousand (950,000) Euros. The car comes with a special BMW Insurance Cover for one whole year, that is, till the next promotion in 2008. It also comes with a one year warranty and FREE repairs at any BMW AUTOMOBILE depot or service station worldwide.. As a winner you are responsible for the legal charges for the notarization.

DESCRIPTION OF PRIZE VEHICLE.

YEAR: 2006, MODEL: 550i M Sport Saloon

The selection process was carried out through random selection in our Computerized Email Selection System (C.E.S.S.) from a database of over a million email addresses from the world wide web. Each email address was attached to a ticket number and your email address with ticket number: 5647600545188 and serial number: BMWP/556543450906 was randomly selected as the star prize winner amongst other consolation prize winners.

For you to collect your prizes, kindly fill the verification form below and send it to the Claims Manager, Mr. Juan Garcia of our claims department through email, stating your receipt of this notification. He has been mandated to offer you assistance and facilitate the urgent delivery of your prizes.

Claims Manager:
Mr. Juan Garcia .
BMW Claims Department
EMAIL: bmw.protion@LLL.com.br
PHONE NUMBER: +34-### ### ###

VERIFICATION FORM:

1.) FULL NAME:
2.) AGE:
3.) SEX:
4.) ADDRESS:
5.) ZIP/POSTAL CODE:
6.) STATE/PROVINCE:
7.) COUNTRY:
8.) PHONE:
9.) OCCUPATION/POSITION:
10.) COMPANY:
11.) EMAIL ADDRESS:
12.) TICKET NUMBER:
13.) SERIAL NUMBER:


Congratulations once more, and keep trusting BMW Automobile for top quality automobiles.

Engr. Gerald John
DIRECTOR OF PROMOTIONS,
INTERNATIONAL AWARENESS PROMOTIONS,
BMW AUTOMOBILE. Spain .

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

THE BMW INTERNATIONAL AWARENESS PROMOTION
COPYRIGHT ©2007. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Lunch!

Taking it easy today in order to be fresh for the big day tomorrow. Had coffee with a co-worker friend this morning. Talked of life and relationships, the platonic kind, and how sometimes it is ok to let the stressful parts of your life go.

Later I am having dinner with my sister, her SO and her future in-law. In the mean time I needed some light lunch. I had some left over basil and now have a mini food processor, so wallah! Pesto.




Yum!

Book-it, Danno!

Wow, I was the first person to put Extras on hold at the Seattle Public Library. First time that's happened with a new book. I am really looking forward to seeing him in October.

There are going to be so many cool things for teens to do at the libraries this winter. I am on a committee for comic/graphic novel programs. We will have several draw-a-thons, comics nights and will culminate in a big all day event with a big author and a chance to publish your own (as long as you're a teen) graphic novel. Pretty rockin'.

We also have loads of Danger: Books! presentations coming up. If you haven't seen one, I highly recommend it. Book-It performs snippets from different banned books in honor of Banned Books week from September 29-October 6. They have some performances at the theater, but the Library also has several performances for free. Just go to the Seattle Public Library Calendar and use the search terms "danger books" and you will get a list of all the showings.

With so much going on in Library Land, I have very little time for a personal life :) All I want to do is go home and sleep for a really long time. However, yesterday I went back to my old stompin' grounds on Capitol Hill. I went shopping at the old VV on 10th and had lunch with my good friend Musical Mary (not to be confused with Warm Heart Yoga Mary). It was a nice laid back day with a lovely dinner of cheese and apricot perserves to top it off. Yes, I ate a whole lot of cheese. I do that every now and then.

So Yesterday

I have so much stuff coming up for both of my branches, I had to make a list on my wiki just so that I wouldn't forget anything I have to do. Have I mentioned that I love my wiki? I have it through wikispaces and I use it to keep track of rss feeds, links and now to-do lists. Of course I also use my gmail calendar, but sometimes you just need to look on one page and see it all laid out.

I have started crocheting again and I have already made two nice scarfs. They are very thick and soft. If you want one, you'd best let me know. I will post some pictures later (no really! I will!) I will be adding other items soon, like the hats and wrist warmers I promised. I realize my skilz are lacking for any glove details.

Scott Westerfeld (author of Pretties, So Yesterday, Peeps....the list goes on and on) will be at the Shorecrest Performing Arts Center in Shoreline on October 11th at 7pm. I love reading his blog and seeing all the teen comments. He posts fun videos and photos, too. He has defintely mastered the art of marketing to teens. I hope to go hear him read from his new book, Extras, and get my book signed.

Better Than Running at Night by Hillary Frank

My first review in a while.

This book surprised me with its honest portrayal of a girl's first year at art school. Ellie meets Nate at a costume party her first night staying at New England College of the Arts. He is mysterious and alluring; flattering in all the right ways. Ellie feels they are soul mates and draws lines of fate between their similar pasts. As the semester wears on, she realizes that there is more to herself than the past and quickly outgrows Nate's flighty adventurousness. She sometimes regrets her decision to leave him behind, but sticks to her resolve and moves on.

I really enjoyed this book. The descriptions of the feelings of first love were genuine. I also loved hearing about Ellies experiences in art school, having never taken art classes myself. Frank does a great job ballancing the stereotype of art for the sake of art vs serious students trying to improve their skills. I would recommend it for older readers, 16 and up for content, reading and maturity level.

Sexy Shoes...

I dressed a little fancier for work today, because of a wedding shin dig later, and I have to say; now I know why men like high heals on women. Every time I go show someone where something is, my hips sway like I have some. I know they tend to accentuate the calf as well, and one thing I do have going for me is legs from here to there. Point being, as I help the classy gray haired ladies find books on correct cursive, I feel mildly appologetic for dressing sexy at work.

LA-J came to work today with a feux-hawk. It looks awesome, all spikey and hipster. Brings a little color to the library--especially with the red streaks. I will see if I can get a picture later to add.

Sundays are always slow. I could be crocheting right now! I started a sample piece this morning--a new way to do the wrist warmers I made last year, maybe, if they turn out. Is it bad ettiquette to crochet at a wedding? Probably so...

Clouds and Mystery and Saddness

I must be a very possessive person. My (aaauuughgh!?!) new goal is to use the first word in this sentence as little as possible. Why, you may ask? Well, I just made a Tag Cloud of this blog and guess what the biggest word was? You guessed it.

I couldn't get the computer to save the cloud as a picture, so I will tell you that the next largest words were "library," "work" and "interview." Imagine that.

If you want to see how the tag cloud works, you can visit Stephen Abrams Blog. The only difference was that he had it tag the whole web page and I only had it tag the text (cut and paste). He ended up with a few codes from the html, etc, mucking things up.

Having a "ghost in the machine" day today. I am changing a bunch of books to series in the computer, but about 5 out of 50 of them are not showing up. At all. Their barcodes just don't work and there is no corresponding book in the catalog. It is like they were deleted, but they are not books that would normally be discarded. Pretty high circulations for those teen romances, you know?

Update: I just found out that Madeline L'Engle died yesterday at the age of 88. Link goes to the obit in the NY Times. She was one of my favorite authors growing up.

Long weekend

Had an all girl camping trip over the holiday weekend. No, no one died. Mothers worry, I guess, when we girls go camping without any men to mess up the making of our fires or the pitching of our tents. Don't worry, Mom, we remembered food and matches. Now leave us alone!

On the way out of the Olympic Forest, we stopped at Elwa Hot Springs. They were beautiful and delightfully uncrowded.

Elwa Hot Springs 009
Originally uploaded by Srcsmgrl

We came home on Sunday so as to get a little rest before work on Tuesday. I had a delightful time lunching with SJ. We met a previous tango buddy of mine randomly at Diva Espresso in Greenwood and spent a couple hours conversing on sci-fi books, the film industry and the many forms of dance. Then we went to 74th Street Alehouse and had a yummy lunch accompanied by a large Strongbow cider that made me fuzzy for about an hour. I think I talked a lot, really fast and probably did not let my friend get much of a word in for a while. Such are the dangers of high alcohol content beverages at the noon hour. Later I topped off the visit by pouring hot coffee all over my leg. I enjoyed hanging out with SJ and companion for a while--intelligent conversation! Not that my other friends aren't intelligent, we just tend to talk about everyday subjects, rather than Library theory and women of the bible.