Short story, actually.

This morning we woke up to a loud noise and burning smell. A mouse had climbed into our furnace motor blower, got cozy, and met his doom when the heat kicked on. We had to call in the furnace guy to pry him out.

I’m not sure if this counts as a win for the fat lazy cats, or as a Pyhrric victory for Team Mouse.

These kids today and their wacky video freeculture.

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Well, after minutes of painstaking research, I have determined that librarians reign supreme on YouTube.

Steve Reed, kickass Library Media Specialist at Wilmington High School sent us a link to an excellent video some of his students made, featuring a library ninja.

As you know, one library ninja video leads to another, and another. Once I finished with the library ninjas and ninja librarians, I was naturally drawn to the librarian superheros.

Troubling indeed, were the librarian villains, librarian vampires, and librarian nazis. But worst of all, are the schlumpy “librarians” who shelve books all day.

Enjoy!

Sorry for not writing yesterday. Someone snuck peanut-laced almonds into my mint chutney, and I had to give myself a shot.

Anaphylaxis is a bad dining companion. It was a rough night.

Also? I got a new camera.

Every year they gather…

(thanks to ann at sivacracy, et. al)

I challenge you to play the BBC’s online Climate Challenge game. It’s free, fun, and uses Flash, so you don’t have to download anything stupid.

I learned more about the relative merits of various greenhouse gas reduction techniques by playing this game then I did from four weeks of reading every popular science article I could find on the topic.

You are the President of the EU. You have a few years to reduce worldwide greenhouse gas emissions before the gulf stream stops churning and Europe floods and/or plunges into an ice age. Goodbye, Paris. You have a whole bunch of options, but only limited time and money. You also need to avoid plunging your economy into chaos, drought, famine, or poverty.

Go get ‘em tiger! Oh, don’t forget to keep your approval rating high enough to stay in office, you tax-raising pinko, you.

I haven’t mentioned this before, but I have a rather librarianish habit. I get on research kicks, usually to no end except my own edification.

For a month or so, I’ll just get on some topic and won’t let it go. I’ll read books on the topic, surf it when I’m supposed to be doing something else, and bore you with conversation about it.

In the past, I’ve become a mini-expert (knowing just enough to be dangerous) on the following:

• The Northern Cities Vowel Shift
• Beekeeping
• The use of scientific imagery in cosmetics advertising
• US Copyright law
• Yiddish and Zionism in the 1940s
• Japanese cooking

After watching An Inconvenient Truth, I’ve been in a state of semi-panic. I’ve researched hybrid cars, veggie cars, rentable solar panels, household wind energy, and biofuel. I’ve swapped out our lightbulbs with compact fluorescents, covered our windows with plastic, and turned down the thermostat. We bartered webwork with our friend Lexie, who does home efficiency evaluations (hire her!). But we still have a long way to go.

Point being, I thought I might start share some of the stuff I dig up. I’ll title the posts Research Obsession so you can skip ‘em if you don’t care about the Poetry of William B. Yeats or whatever it is I’m currently nuts about.

Doppleganger at 50 books hearts librarians.

Off to Vancouver, BC for the week. I’m stalking the sea otters at the Vancouver aquarium.

I get in tonight. If any CUPE 391 members want a beer, I’m buying. Organized librarians rock.